THE LIBRARY
of
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
Toronto
THE HISTORY
OF THE
ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY.
BOOK V.
THE GOSPELS.
BY
ERNEST RENAN,
Member of the French Academy.
MATHIESON & COMPANY.
NEW INN CHAMBERS, 41 WYCH STREET, W.C.
9875
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION v
CHAPTER I.
THE JEWS AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE, ... 1
CHAPTER II.
BETHER THE BOOK OF JUDITH THE JEWISH CANON, . . .14
CHAPTER III.
EBION BEYOND JORDAN, , . 20
CHAPTER IV.
THE RELATIONS OF JEWS AND CHRISTIANS, 32
CHAPTER V.
SETTLEMENT OF THE LEGEND AND OF THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS, . 39
CHAPTER VI.
THE HEBREW GOSPEL, . .49
CHAPTER VII.
THE GREEK GOSPEL MARK, 58
CHAPTER VIII.
CHRISTIANITY AND THE EMPIRE UNDER FLAVIUS, .... 66
CHAPTER IX.
PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY EGYPT SIBYLLISM, ... 81
CHAPTER X.
THE GREEK GOSPEL IS CORRECTED AND COMPLETED (MATTHEW), . 91
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI. FAGS
SECRET OF THE BEAUTIES OF THE GOSPEL, 103
CHAPTER XII.
THE CHRISTIANS OF THE FLAVIA FAMILY FLAVIUS JOSEPHDS, . 115
CHAPTER XIII.
THE GOSPEL OF LUKE, 131
CHAPTER XIV.
THE DOMITIAN PERSECUTION, 149
CHAPTER XV.
CLEMENS ROMANUS PROGRESS OF THE PRESBYTEHIATE, . . . 161
CHAPTER XVI.
END OF THE FLAVII NERVA RECRUDESCENCE OF THE APOCALYPSES, 175
CHAPTER XVII.
TRAJAN THE GOOD AND GREAT EMPERORS 194
CHAPTER XVIII.
KPHESUS THE OLD AGE OF JOHN CERINTHUS, DOCETISJI, . . 212
CHAPTER XIX.
LUKE, THE FIRST HISTORIAN OF CHRISTIANITY, .... 224
CHAPTER XX.
SYRIAN SECTS ELKASA1, 232
CHAPTER XXI.
TRAJAN AS A PERSECUTOR LETTER OF PLINY, . . , . 241
CHAPTER XXII.
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 249
CHAPTER XXIII.
KND OF TRAJAN REVOLT OF THE JEWS, ...... 255
CHAPTER XXIV.
DEFINITIVE SEPARATION OF THE CHUKOH AND THE SYNAGOGUE, . 263
APPENDIX, 277
INTRODUCTION.
CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
OF THIS HISTORY.
I HAD at first believed that I should be able to finish in one volume
this history of the " Origins of Christianity ; " but the matter has grown
in proportion as I have advanced in my work, and the present volume
is only the last but two. The reader will find in it the explanation, so
far as it is possible to give one, of a fact almost equal in importance to
the personal action of Jesus himself I mean to say, of the manner in
which the legend of Jesus was written. The compilation of the Gospels
is, next to the life of Jesus, the cardinal chapter of the history of
Christian origins. The material circumstances of this compilation are
surrounded with mystery ; many of the doubts, however, have, in those
later years, been dispelled, and it can now be said that the problem of
the compilation of the Gospels denominated synoptic, has reached a
kind of maturity. The relations of Christianity with the Roman
Empire, the first heresies, the disappearance of the last immediate
disciples of Jesus, the gradual separation of the Church and the Syna
gogue, the progress of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the substitution of
the presbytery for the primitive community, the coming in with Trajan
of a sort of golden age for civil society, these are the great facts
which we shall see unfolded to our view. Our sixth volume will em
brace the history of Christianity under the reigns of Hadrian and
Antoninus ; we shall witness the commencement of Gnosticism, the
compilation of the pseudo-Johannine writings, the first apologists, the
party of St Paul drifting by exaggeration to Marcion, ancient Chris
tianity running into a coarser Millenarisin and Montanism. Opposed to
all this, the episcopate making rapid strides, Christianity becoming each
day more Greek and less Hebrew, a " Catholic Church " beginning to
result from the accord of all the individval churches, and to constitute a
centre of irrefragable authority, which already was established at Rome.
We shall see finally the absolute separation of Judaism and Christianity
definitively effected, from the time of the revolt of Bar-Coziba, and
hatred the most deadly kindled between mother and daughter. From
this point it can be said that Christianity is constituted. Its principle
of authority exists. The episcopate has entirely replaced the primitive
democracy, and the bishops of the different churches are en rapport
with one another. The new Bible is complete ; it is called the New
Vi INTRODUCTION.
Testament. The divinity of Jesus Christ is recognised by all the Churches
outside of Syria. The Son is not yet the equal of the Father ; he is a
second god, a supreme vizier of creation, yet he is in very truth a god.
Finally, two or three attacks of maladies, extremely dangerous, which
break out in the nascent religion Gnosticism, Montanism, docetism, the
heretical attempt of Marcion are vanquished by the force of the in
ternal principle of authority. Christianity, moreover, has extended
itself everywhere. It has seated itself in the heart of Gaul, it has pene
trated into Africa. It is a public affair : the historians speak of it ; it
has its advocates who defend it officially, its accusers who commence
against it a war of criticism. Christianity, in a word, is born, com
pletely born ; it is an infant, and will grow a great deal. It has all its
organs, it lives in the broad light of day, it is no longer an embryo.
The umbilical cord which attached it to its mother is definitely cut ;
it will receive nothing more from her ; it will live its own life.
It is at this moment, about the year 160, that we shall determine
this. That which follows belongs to history, and may seem relatively
easy to recount. What we have wished to make clear belongs to the
embry-organic stage, and must in great part be inferred, sometimes even
divined. Minds which only love material certainty, cannot be pleased
with such researches. Rarely (for these periods recur) does it happen
that one can say with precision how things have taken place ; but one may
succeed sometimes in picturing to oneself the diverse manners in which
they may have taken place, and that is sufficient. If there be a science
which can make in our day surprising progress, it is the science of com
parative mythology. Now this, science has consisted much less in teach
ing us how each myth has been formed, than in demonstrating to us
the diverse categories of formation. Although we cannot say, " Such a
demi-god, such a goddess, is surely storm, lightning, the dawn," etc. ; but
we can say, " The atmospheric phenomena, particularly those which are
related to the rising and the setting of the sun, and so forth, have been
the fruitful sources of gods and demi-gods." Aristotle has truly said,
" There is no science except general science." History herself, history
properly speaking, history exposed to the light of day and founded upon
documents, does she escape this necessity ? Certainly not ; we do not
know exactly the details of anything. That which is of moment are
the general lines, the grand resultant facts which remain true even
though all the details may be erroneous.
Hence I have said the most important object of this volume is to ex
plain in a plausible manner the method by which the three Gospels, called
synoptic, were formed, which constitute, if we compare them with the
fourth Gospel, a family apart. It is certainly true that it is impossible
to determine precisely many of the points in this delicate research. It
must be confessed, however, that the question has made during the last
twenty years veritable progress. As the origin of the fourth Gospel,
which is attributed to John, remains enveloped in mystery, so the hypo
theses in regard to the compilation of the Gospels called synoptic have
attained a high degree of probability. There are in reality three kinds
of Gospels : (1) The original Gospels, or Gospels at first hand, composed
solely from oral tradition, and without the author having before him
INTRODUCTION. vii
any anterior text. (In my opinion, there are two Gospels of this kind,
the one written in Hebrew, or rather in Syriac, now lost, but of which
many of the fragments have been preserved to us, translated into
Greek or into Latin, by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius,
Epiphanius, St Jerome, etc. ; the other written in Greek, which is
that of St Mark.) (2) The Gospels, in part original, in part at
second hand, formed by combining the anterior texts with the oral
traditions (such were the Gospel falsely attributed to the Apostle Mat
thew and the Gospel composed by Luke). (3) The Gospels at second
or third hand, composed deliberately from written documents, without
the authors having dipped through any living principle into traditions.
(Such was the Gospel of Marcion ; such were also these Gospels,
called apocryphal, drawn from the canonical Gospels by processes of
amplification.) The variety of the Gospels arises from this, that the
tradition which is found deposited there was for a long time oral.
That variety would not have existed if from the very first the life of
Jesus had been written. The idea of modifying arbitrarily the com
pilation of the texts presents itself less in the East than elsewhere,
because the literal reproduction of the anterior accounts, or, if it be
preferred, plagiarism is there the rule of the historiographer. The
moment when an epic, or a legendary tradition, commences to be put
into writing, marks the hour when it ceases to produce divergent
branches. Par from subdividing itself, the compilation obeys thence
forward a sort of secret tendency which restores it to unity through the
gradual extinction of imperfectly-judged compilations. There existed
fewer Gospels at the end of the second century, when Irenaeus found
mystical reasons to establish that there were four, and that there could
not be more, than at the close of the first, when Luke wrote at the
end of his narrative, Eirepdrj irep iroXXoJ eirixeip^crav . . . Even in the
time of Luke several of the original editions had probably disappeared.
The oral form produces a multiplication of variants ; but once the
written style has been entered upon, this multiplicity is nothing but
an inconvenience. If logic like that of Marcion s had prevailed, we
should have had no more than one Gospel, and the best mark of the
sincerity of the Christian conscience is that the necessities of the apolo
getic have not suppressed the contradictions in the texts by reducing
them to one only. This is why, to speak the truth, the want of unity
was combated by a contrary desire that of losing nothing of a tradition
which was judged as being equally precious in all its parts. A design
like that which is often attributed to St Mark, the idea of making an
abridgment of the anteriority received texts, is more contrary to the
spirit of the times than the one in question. People aimed, indeed,
rather at completing each text by the heterogeneous additions, as in the
case of Matthew, than in discarding from the little book what one
possessed of the details which were regarded by all as being penetrated
by the Divine Spirit.
The most important documents for the epoch treated of in this
volume are, besides the Gospels and the other writings the compilation
of which are therein explained, the somewhat numerous epistles which
were produced during the last apostolic period epistles in which
viii INTRODUCTION.
almost always 4he imitation of those of St Paul is discernible. What
we shall say in our text will be sufficient to make known our opinion
upon each of these writings. A fortuitous accident has willed that the
most interesting of these epistles, that of Clemens Romanus, has re
ceived, in these later times, considerable elucidation. We should not
have before known of this precious document, but for the celebrated
manuscript, named Alexand/inus, which was sent, in 1682, by Cyril
Lucaris to Charles I. Now, this manuscript contained a considerable
omission, not to speak of several places which had been destroyed, or
become illegible, which it was necessary to fill up with conjecture. A
new manuscript, discovered in the Fanar at Constantinople, contains
the work in its entirety. A Syriac manuscript, which formed a portion
of the library of the late M. Mohl, and which has been acquired hy the
library of the University of Cambridge, was found also to include the
Syrian translation of the work of which we are speaking. M. Bensley is
entrusted with the publication of that text. The collation which Mr
Lightfoot has made of it, has produced the most important results which
arise from it for criticism.
The question whether the epistle attributed to Clemens Romanus
is reaDy by that holy personage, has only a mediocre importance, since
the writing in question is represented as the collective work of the
Roman Church, and since the problem confines itself, consequently, as
to who held the pen on this particular occasion. It is not the same
as the epistles attributed to St Ignatius. The fragments which com
pose this collection are either authentic or the work of a forger. In the
second hypothesis they were at least sixty years posterior to the death
of St Ignatius, and such is the importance of the changes which
operated in those sixty years, that the documentary value of the said
fragments is absolutely changed by them. It is hence impossible to
treat the history of the origins of Christianity, without taking up a
decided position in this regard.
The question of the Epistles of St Ignatius, next to the question
of the Johnnnine writings, is the most difficult of those which belong
to the primitive Christian literature. A few of the most striking
features of one of the letters which form a portion of that correspond
ence, were known and cited from the end of the second century. We
have, moreover, here the testimony of a man which we are surprised
to see pleaded on a subject of ecclesiastical history that of Lucian of
Samosata. The spiritelle picture of morals which that charming
author has entitled The Death of Pereyrinus, " contains some almost
direct allusions to the triumphal journey of the prisoner Ignatius, and
to the circular epistles which he addressed to the Churches. These
constitute some strong presumptions in favour of the authenticity of the
letters of which we have been speaking. On the other hand, the taste
for supposititious writings was at the time so wide-spread amongst
Christian society, that we ought always to be on our guard in respect
of them, since it is proved that no scruple was made in ascribing
some of the letters and other writings to Peter, Paul, and John.
Thure is no prejudicial objection to be raised against the hypothesis
which attributes writings to persons of high authority, such as Igna-
INTRODUCTION.
tins and Polycarpus. It is only the examination of the compositions
themselves which will warrant one in expressing an opinion in that
regard. Now it is incontestable that the perusal of the writings of
St Ignatius inspires the gravest suspicions, and raises objections
which no one has as yet satisfactorily answered.
In regard to a personage like St Paul, some of whose longer
writings of indubitable authenticity it is universally admitted we pos
sess, and whose biography is well enough known, the discussion of
the contested epistles has some foundation. We start with the texts
to which no exception can be taken, and from the well-established out
lines of the biography ; we compare the doubtful writings with them ;
we see whether they agree with the data admitted by everyone, and,
in certain cases, as in those of the Epistles to Titus and Timothy,
we reach most satisfactory conclusions. But we know nothing of the
private life of St Ignatius ; among the writings attributed to him there
is not a page of them which is not coutestable. We have not their
solid critcrium to warrant us in saying, "This is or this is not his."
That which greatly complicates the question is, that the text of the
epistles is extremely variable the Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Armenian
manuscripts of the same epistle differ considerably amongst them
selves. These letters, during several centuries, seem to have particu
larly exercised the forgers and the interpolators. Obstacles and diffi
culties are encountered in them at each step.
Without taking into account the secondary various readings, as well
as some works notoriously spurious, we possess two collections of un
equal length of the epistles attributed to St Ignatius. The one
contains seven letters addressed to the Ephesians, the Magnesians, the
Trallians, the Romans, the Philadelphians, the Smyrniotes, to Poly-
carpus. The other consists of thirteen letters, to wit : (1) The seven just
mentioned, considerably augmented ; (2) Four new letters of Ignatius
tc the Tarsians, to the Philippines, to the Antiochians, to Heros ;
(3) and finally, a letter of Maria de Castabala to Ignatius, with the
answer of Ignatius. Between those two collections there can be but little
possible hesitation. The critics, beginning with Usserius, are nearly
agreed in preferring the collection of seven letters to that of the thirteen.
There can be no doubt that the added letters in the latter collection are
apocryphal. As for the seven letters which are common to the two
collections, the actual text must certainly be sought for in the former
collection. Many of the particulars in the texts of the second collec
tion betray unmistakably the hand of the interpolator ; but this does
not necessitate that this second collection may not have a veritable
critical value in regard to the construction of the text, for it would
appear that the interpolator had in his hands an excellent manu
script, the reading of which ought to be preferred to that of the non-
interpolated manuscripts actually existing.
In any case, is the collection of seven letters beyond suspicion ?
Far from it. The first doubts were raised by the great school of French
criticism of the seventeenth century. Saumaise and Blondel raised
the most serious objections against portions of the collection of the
seven letters. Daille , in 1666, published a remarkable dissertation,
X INTRODUCTION.
in which he rejected the, collection in its entirety. In spite of the
trenchant replies of Pearson, Bishop of Chester, and the resistance of
Cotolier, the majority of independent minds Larroque, Basnuge,
Casimir Oudin ranged themselves on the side of Daille . The school
which in our day in Germany has so learnedly applied criticism to the
history of the origins of Christianity, has only followed the lines of that
of nearly two hundred years ago. Neander and Gieseler remained in
doubt ; Christian Baur resolutely denied the authenticity of the whole :
none of the epistles found grace in his sight. This great critic, it is
true, did not rest content with denying, he explained. In his view,
the seven Ignatian epistles were a forgery of the second century, fabri
cated at Rome, with a view of creating a basis for the authority of
the episcopate, which was increasing day by day. M. M. Schwegler,
Hilgenfeld, Vauchner, Volkmar, and more recently M. M. Scholten and
Pfliederer, have adopted the same propositions, with slightly different
shades of meaning. Many enlightened theologians, nevertheless, such
as Uhlhorn, Hefele, and Dressel, persisted in regarding some portions
of the collection of the seven letters as authentic, or even in defending
it in its entirety. An important discovery, about the year 1840, ought
to have determined the question in an ecclesiastical sense, and furnished
an instrument to those who held it to be a difficult operation to
separate in the texts, generally little nccented, the sincere parts from
those interpolated.
Amongst the treasures which the British Museum secured from the
convents of Nitria, M. Cureton discovered three Syriac maunscripts,
each of which contained the same collection of the Ignatian epistles ;
but they are much more abridged than the two Greek collections. The
Syrian collection found by Cureton contained only three epistles the
epistle to the Ephesians, that to the Romans, that to Polycarpus and
these three epistles were found to be much shorter than in the Greek.
It was natural to believe that people would in fine hold Ignatius to be
authentic, the text being anterior to all interpolations. The phrases
cited as those of Ignatius by Irenseus, by Origen, were found in that
Syriac version.
People believed it was possible to show that the suspected passages
were not to he found in them. Bunsen, Ritschl, Weiss, and Lipsius
displayed an extreme ardour in maintaining that proposition. M.
Ewald assumed to advocate it in an imperious tone ; but very strong
objections were raised against it. Baur, Wordsworth, Hefele, Uhlhorn,
and Merx set themselves to prove that the small Syriac collection, so
far from being the original text, was an abridged and mutilated text.
They have not clearly shown, it is true, what motives had guided the
abbreviator in this work of making extracts. But in seeking again for
the evidences of the knowledge which the Syrians had of the epistles
in question, we arrive at the conclusion that not only had the Syrians
not possessed an Ignatius more authentic than that of the Greeks, but
that even the collection which they have was the collection of thirteen
letters from which the abbreviator discovered by Cureton had drawn
his extracts. Petermann contributed much to this result in discussing
*.he Armenian translation of the epistles in question. This translation
INTRODUCTION. XI
had been made from the Syriac, but it contains the thirteen letters, in
cluding the most feeble portions of them. People are to-day so nearly
agreed that there is no occasion to consult the Syriac in that which
concerns the writings attributed to the Bishop of Antioch, except as to
a few details of the various readings.
We see, after what has just been said, that three opinions divide the
critics as to the collection of the seven letters, only one of which, however,
merits discussion. Some hold that the whole collection is apocryphal,
while others maintain that the whole, or nearly so, is authentic. A few
seek to distinguish the authentic from the apocryphal portion. The
second opinion appears to us indefensible. Without affirming that
everything in the correspondence of the Bishop of Antioch is apocryphal,
it is allowable to regard as a desperate attempt the pretension of de
monstrating that the whole of it is of good alloy.
If we except, in fact, the Epistle to the Romans, which is full of a
singular energy, of a kind of sacred fire, and stamped by a character
peculiarly original, the six other epistles, excepting two or three passages,
are cold, lifeless, and desperately monotonous. There is not one of those
striking peculiarities which gave so distinctive a seal to the Epistles of St
Paul and even to the Epistles of St James and Clemens Romanus ; they
consist of vague exhortations, without any special relations to those to
whom they are addressed, and always dominated by one fixed idea the
enhancement of the episcopal power, the constitution of the Church into
a hierarchy.
Certainly the remarkable evolution which substituted for the col
lective authority of the tKK\rjffla or vvvayuyri the direction of the
irpfafivrepoi or eirlffKOTroi (two terms at first synonymous), and which,
among the wpea^vrepot, or MffKoiroi, in selecting one out from the
circle (?) to be par excellence the tiriffKoiros or overseer of the others, began
at a very early date. But it is not credible that, about the year 1 1 or 1 1 5,
this movement was so advanced as we see it to be in the Ignatian epistles.
According to the author of these curious writings, the bishop is the whole
Church ; it is imperative to follow him in everything, to consult him in
everything he sums up the community in himself alone. He is Christ
himself. Where the bishop is, there is the Church, just as where Jesus
Christ is, there is the Church Catholic. The distinction between the
different ecclesiastical orders is not less characteristic. The priests and
deacons are in the hands of the bishop like the strings of a lyre ; their
perfect harmony depends upon the accuracy of the sounds which the
Church emits. Above the individual Churches, in fact, there is a Church
Universal, r/ /ca0oXt/crj ^KK\rjffLa. All this is true enough from the end of
the second century, but not so from the early years of that century.
The repugnance which our old French critics evinced on this point was
well founded, and sprung from the very correct sentiment which they
entertained as to the gradual evolution of the Christian dogmas.
The heresies combatted by the author of the Ignatian epistles with
so much fury are likewise of an age posterior to that of Trajan. They
were wholly attached to a Docetism or a Gnosticism analogous to that
of Valentinus. We insist less on this particular, for the pastoral
epistles and the Johannine writings combat errors greatly analogous,
Xll INTRODUCTION.
yet we think these writings belong to the first half of the second cen
tury. However, the idea of an orthodoxy outside of which there is
only error, appeared in the writings in question, and so fully developed
that it seems to approach more nearly the times of St Irenaeus than
those of the primitive Christian age.
The great feature of the apocryphal writings is the affectation of
a leaning in a certain direction : the aim that the forger proposed to
himself in their composition always clearly betrays itself in them.
This character is observable in the highest degree in the epistles at
tributed to St Igna tius, the Epistle to the Romans always excepted.
The author wishes to strike a great blow in favour of the episcopal
hierarchy ; he wishes to crush the heretics and the schismatics of
his time with the weight of an indisputable authority. But where
can we find a higher authority than that of this venerated bishop,
whose heroic death was recognised by everyone ? What more solemn
than the counsels given by this martyr a few days or a few weeks
before his appearance in the amphitheatre ? St Paul, in like manner,
in the epistles supposed to be addressed to Titus and to Timothy, is
represented as oM, nigh unto death. The last will of a martyr came
to be regarded as sacred, and, moreover, the admission of the apocry
phal work was so much the more easy, inasmuch as St Ignatius
was believed, in fact, to have written different letters on his way
to his execution. Let us add to these objections a few material
improbabilities. The salutations to the Churches and the relations
which these salutations presupposed to exist between the author of
the letters and the Churches, are not sufficiently explained. The
circumstantial features contain something awkward and stupid just
as was also to be remarked in the false epistles of Paul to Titus
and to Timothy. The great use which is made in the writings of
which we speak, of the fourth Gospel and of the Johannine epistles,
the affected way in which the author speaks of the doubtful epistle of
St Paul to the Ephesians, likewise excites suspicion. On the other
hand, it is very strange that the author, in seeking to exalt the Church
at Ephesus, ignores the relations of this Church with St Paul, and
says nothing of the sojourn of St John at Ephesus, he who was sup
posed to be so closely connected with Polycarpus, the disciple of John.
It must be confessed, in short, that this correspondence is not often
cited by the fathers, and that the estimate which appears to have been
put upon it by the Christian authors up to the fourth century, is not
in proportion to that which it merited had it been authentic. Let us
always put to one side the Epistle to the Romans, which, in our view,
does not form a part of the apocryphal collection. The six other
epistles have been little read St John, Chrysostom, and the ecclesi
astical writers of Antioch, seem to have been ignorant of them. It is
a singular thing that even the author of the Acts, of the Martyrdom
of Ignatius, the most authorised of those that Ruinart published from
a manuscript of Colbert, possesses only a very vague knowledge con
cerning them. It is the same with the author of the Acts published by
Dressel.
Ought the Epistle to the Romans to be included in the condemnation
INTRODUCTION. Xlll
which the other Ignatiau epistles merit ? One may read the translation
^f a part of this writing in our text. There is here certainly a singular
fragment, which cuts into the common-places of the other epistles
attributed to the Bishop of Antioch. Is the Epistle to the Romans
entirely the work of the holy martyrs I This may be doubted, but it
appears to cover original ground. Here and there only we acknow
ledge that which M. Zahn too generously accords to the rest of the
Ignatian correspondence the imprint of a powerful character and of
a strong individuality. The style of the Epistle to the Romans is
bizarre and enigmatical, whilst that of the rest of the correspondence
is plain and insipid enough. The Epistle to the Romans does not
include any of those common-places of ecclesiastical discipline by
which the intention of the forger is recognised. The strong expres
sions which we encounter there upon the divinity of Jesus Christ and
the eucharist ought not to surprise us too much. Ignatius belonged
to the school of Paul, in which the formulas of transcendent theology
were much more current than in the severe Judeo-Christian school.
Still less must we be astonished at the numerous citations and imita
tions of Paul which are found in the Epistle of Ignatius of which we
speak. There can be no doubt that Ignatius did not make constant
use of the authentic epistles of PauL I have said as much of a cita
tion from St Matthew (sec. 6), which, moreover, is wanting in several
of the old translations, as well as a vague allusion to the genealogies
of the synoptics (sec. 7). Ignatius doubtless possessed the Aex^" ^
irpa-)(devTa. of Jesus, such as were read in his times, and, upon the
essential points these accounts differed little from those which have
come down to us. More serious, undoubtedly, is the objection drawr
from the expressions which the author of our epistle appears to have
borrowed from the fourth GospeL It is not certain that this Gospel
existed before the year 115. But some expressions like 6 G.p%uv aluvos
TOIJTOV, some images like OSwp {Civ, may have been mystical expressions
employed in certain schools, dating from the first quarter of the second
century, and before the fourth Gospel had consecrated them.
These intrinsic arguments are not the only ones which oblige us to
place the Epistle to the Romans in a distinct category in the Ignatian
correspondence. In some respects this epistle contradicts the other six.
At paragraph 4, Ignatius declares to the Romans that he represents
them to the Churches as being willing that he should carry off the
crown of martyrdom. We find nothing resembling this in the epistles
to these Churches. That which is much more serious is that the
Epistle to the Romans does not seem to have reached us through the
same channel as the other six letters. In the manuscripts which have
preserved to us the collection of the suspected letters, the Epistle to the
Romans is not to be found. The relatively true text of this epistle has
only been transmitted to us by the Acts, called Colbertine, of the martyr
dom of St Ignatius. It has been extracted thence, and intercalated
in the collection of the thirteen letters. But everything proves that
the collection of the letters to the Ephesians, the Magnesians, the
Trallians, the Philadelphians, the Smyrniotes, to Polycarpus, did not
comprise at first the Epistle to the Romans, that these six letters in
KIV INTRODUCTION.
themselves constituted the collection, having a distinct unity, from
being the work of a single author ; and that it was not until later that
the two series of Ignatian correspondence were combined, the one apo
cryphal, consisting of six letters, the other, probably authentic, consist
ing of a single letter. It is remarkable that in the collection of the
thirteen letters the Epistle to the Romans comes last, although its
importance and celebrity ought to have secured it the first place. In
short, in the whole of the ecclesiastical tradition, the Epistle to the
Romans has a particular design. While the other six letters are very
rarely cited, the Epistle to the Romans, beginning with Irenaeus, is
quoted with extraordinary respect. The energetic sentiments which it
contains to express the love of Jesus and the eagerness for martyrdom,
constitute in some sort a part of the Christian conscience, and are
known of all. Pearson, and, after him, M. Zahn, have likewise proved a
singular fact, which is the imitation that is to be found in paragraph 3
of the authenic account of the martyrdom of Polycarpus, written by a
Smyrniote in the year 155, of a passage of the Epistle of Ignatius to
the Romans. It seems, indeed, that the Smyrniote, the author of these
Acts, had in hia mind some of the most striking passages of the Epistle
to the [tomans, above all, the fifth paragraph.
Thus everybody assigns the Epistle to the Romans in the Ignatian
literature a distinct place. M. Zahn recognises this peculiar circum
stance ; he shows clearly in different places that this epistle was never
completely incorporated with the other six ; but he has failed to point
out the consequence of that fact. His desire to discover the collection
of the seven authentic letters has led him into an imprudent discussion,
to wit, that the collection of the seven letters ought either to be accepted
or rejected in its entirety. This is to repeat, in another sense, the fault
of Baur, of Helgenfeld, and Volkmar ; it is to compromise seriously one
of the jewels of the primitive Christian literature, in associating it with
these but too often mediocre writings, and which have almost on this
point been put out of court.
That which then seems the most probable is that the Ignatian litera
ture contains nothing authentic, except the Epistle to the Romans.
Even this epistle has not remained exempt from alterations. The
length, the repetitions which are remarked in it, are probably injuries
inflicted by an interpolation upon that beautiful monument of Chris
tian antiquity. When we compare the texts preserved by the Colbertin
Acts, with the texts of the collection of the thirteen epistles, with the
Latin and Syriac translations, with the citations of Eusebius, we find
very considerable differences. It seems that the author of the Colbertin
Acts, in encasing in his account this precious fragment, has not scrupled
to retouch it in many points. In the superscription, for example, Ignatius
gives himself the surname of 6eo06pos. Now neither Irenaeus, nor
Origen, nor Eusebius, nor St Jerome knew this characteristic sur
name ; it appeared for the first time in the Acts of Martyrdom, which
makes the most important part of Trajan s inquiring turn upon the said
epithet. The idea of applying it to Ignatius was suggested by passages
in the supposititious epistles, such as Ad. Eph., sec. 9. The author of the
Acts, finding that name in the tradition, has availed himself of it, and
INTRODUCTION. XV
added it to the title of the epistle which he inserted in his narrative,
lyvanos 6 KO.I 9eo0opoj. I think that in the original compilation of
these six apocryphal epistles, these words, 6 KCU 0eo$opos no longer con
stitute a part of the titles. The post-scriptum to the Epistle of Poly-
carpus to the Philippians, in which Ignatius is mentioned, and which is
by the same band as the six epistles, as we shall see further on, makes
no mention of this epithet.
Is one justified in denying absolutely that in the six suspected
epistles there is no portion of them borrowed from the authentic letters
of Ignatius ? No, certainly not ; and the author of the six apocryphal
epistles not having known, as it would seem, the Epistle to the Romans,
there is no great likelihood that he possessed other authentic letters of
the martyr. A single passage in sec. 1 9 of the Epistle to the Ephesians,
appears to me to cut into the dark and vague ground with which
the suspected epistles are encompassed, that which concerns the rpia
HVffrripia Kpavyijs has much of that mysterious, singular, and obscure
style, recalling the fourth Gospel, which we have remarked in the
Epistle to the Romans. That passage, like the brilliant sentiments in
the Epistle to the Romans, has been much cited. But it occupies too
isolated a position there to be insisted on.
A question which is closely connected with that of the epistles
ascribed to St Ignatius, is the question of the epistle attributed to
Polycarpus. At two different places (sec. 9 and sec. 13), Polycarpus, or
the person who has forged the letter, makes formal mention of Ignatius.
In a third place (sec. 1), he would seem again to make allusion to it. We
read in one of those passages (sec. 13, and last) : " You have written to
me, you and Ignatius, in order that if there be anyone here who is
about to depart for Syria he would bear thence your letters. I shall
acquit myself of this task, when I can find a suitable opportunity,
either in person, or by a messenger whom I shall send for both of us.
As for the epistles that Ignatius has addressed to you, and the others
of his which we possess, we send them to you, since you have requested
us to do so ; they are sent together with this letter. You will be able to
extract much profit from them, as they breathe the faith, the patience,
the edification of our Lord." The old Latin version adds, " Inform
me as to that which you know touching Ignatius, and those who are
with him." These lines notoriously correspond with a passage in the
letter of Ignatius to Polycarpus (sec. 8), where Ignatius asks the latter
to send messengers in different directions. All this is suspicious. As
the Epistle of Polycarpus finishes very well with sec. 12, one is led
almost necessarily, if one admits the authenticity of this epistle, to
suppose that a post-scriptum has been added to the Epistles of Poly
carpus by the author of the six apocryphal epistles of Ignatius himself.
There is no Greek manuscript of the Epistle of Polycarpus which con
tains this post-scriptum. We only know it through a citation of
Eusebius, and through the Latin version. The sanie errors are com
bated in the Epistles to Polycarpus as in the six Ignatian epistles :
the order of the ideas is the same. Many manuscripts present the
Epistle of Polycarpus joined to the Ignatian collection in the form of
a preface or of an epilogue. It would seem, then, either that the
XVI INTRODUCTION.
epistles of Polycarpus and those of Ignatius are by the same forger, or
that the author of the letters of Ignatius had the idea of seeking for
a point d appui in the Epistle of Polycarpus, and in adding to it a
post-scriptum, of creating an interest in his work. This addition
harmonises well with the mention of Ignatius which is found in the
body of the letter of Polycarpus (sec. 9). It would fit in better still, in
appearance, at least, with the first paragraph of this letter in which
Polycarpus praises the Philippians for having received in a proper
manner some confessors bound in chains who passed some time with
them.
Prom the Epistle of Polycarpus so falsified, and from the six letters
ascribed to Ignatius, there was formed a little pseud o-Ignatian Corpus,
pref ectly homogeneous in style and in colouring, which was a real defence
of orthodoxy, and of the episcopate. By the side of this collection there
was preserved the more or less authentic Epistle of Ignatius to the
Romans. This circumstance induces the belief that the forger was
acquainted with this writing, nevertheless it appears that he did not
judge it convenient to include it in his collection, the arrangement of
which he changed, and demonstrated its non-authenticity.
Irenseus, about the year 180, only knew Ignatius through the
energetic sentiments contained in his Epistle to the Romans. " I am
the bread of Christ," etc. He had undoubtedly read this epistle,
although what he says is sufficiently accounted for by an oral tradition.
Irenseus, to all appearance, did not possess the six apocryphal letters,
and in all probability he read the true or supposed epistle of his
master Polycarpus without the post-scriptum ; Eiriypaij/art /J.QI . . .
Origen admitted as authentic the Epistle to the Romans, and the six
apocryphal letters. He cited the former in the prologue of his com
mentary on the Canticle of Canticles, and the pretended Epistle to
the Ephesians in his sixth homily upon St Luke. Eusebius knew the
Ignatian collection as we have it, that is to say, consisting of seven
letters ; he did not use the Acts of Martyrdom ; he makes no distinction
between the Epistle to the Romans and the six others. He read the
Epistle of Polycarpus with the post-scriptum. A peculiar fate seemed
to designate the name of Ignatius to the fabricators of apocryphas.
In the second half of the fourth century, about 375, a new collection
of Ignatiau epistles was produced : this is the collection of the thirteen
letters, to which the collection of the seven letters notoriously served
as a nucleus. As these seven letters presented many obscurities, the
new forger also set about interpolating them. A multitude of ex
planatory glosses are introduced into the text, and burden it to no
purpose. Six new letters were fabricated from end to end, and, in
spite of their shocking improbability, they came to be universally
adopted. The retouchings to which they were afterwards subjected,
were only abridgments of the two preceding collections. The Syrians,
in particular, concocted a small edition, consisting of three abridged
letters, in the preparation of which they were guided by no correct
sentiment as to the distinction between the authentic and the apocryphal.
A few works appeared still later to -enlarge the Ignatian works. We
possess these only in Latin.
INTRODUCTION. xvii
The Acts of the Martyrdom of St Ignatius presents not less
diversities than the text itself of the epistles which are ascribed to them
We enumerate as many as eight or nine compilations. We must not
attribute much importance to these productions ; none of them have
any original value ; all are posterior to Eusebius, and compiled from the
data furnished by Eusebius, data which of themselves have no other
foundation than the collection of the epistles, and, in particular, the
Epistle to the Romans. These Acts, in their most ancient form, do not
go back further than the end of the fourth century. We cannot in any
way compare them with the Acts of the Martyrdom of Polycarpus and the
martyrs of Lyons, accounts actually authentic and contemporaneous with
the facts reported. They are full of impossibilities, of historical errors
and mistakes, as to the condition of the Empire at the epoch of Trajan.
In this volume, as in those which precede, we have sought to steer
a middle course between the criticism which employs all its resources
to defend texts which have for long been stamped with discredit, and
the exaggerated scepticism which rejects en bloc and & priori every
thing which Christianity records of its first origins. One will remark,
in particular, the employment of this intermediary method in that
which concerns the question of the Clements and that of the Christian
Flavii. It is apropos of the Clements that the conjectures of the
school called Tubingen have been the worst inspired. The defect of
this school, sometimes so fecund, is the rejecting of the traditional
systems, often, it is true, built upon fragile materials, and their substi
tuting systems founded upon authorities more fragile still. As regards
Ignatius, have not they pretended to correct the traditions of the
second century by Jean Malala 1 As regards Simon Magus, have not
some theologians, in other respects sagacious, resisted to the latest
the necessity of admitting the real existence of that personage ? As
regards the Clements, we would be looked upon by certain critics as
narrow-minded indeed, if we admitted that Clemens Romanus existed,
and if we did not explain all that which relates to him by the certain
misunderstandings and confusions with Flavius Clemens. Now it is, on
the contrary, the data in regard to Flavius Clemens which are un
certain and contradictory. We do not deny the gleams of Chris
tianity which appear to issue from the obscure rubbish of the Flavian
family ; but to extract from thence a great historic fact by which to
rectify uncertain traditions, is a strange part to take, or rather, this
lack of just proportion in induction, which in Germany is so often de
trimental to the rarest qualities of diligence and application. They
discard solid evidence, and substitute for it feeble hypothesis ; they
challenge satisfactory texts, and accept, almost without examination,
the combinations hazarded by an accommodating archaeology. Some
thing new they will have at any cost, and the new they obtained by the
exaggeration of ideas, often just and penetrating. From a feeble current
proved to exist in some obscure gulf, they conclude the existence of a great
oceanic current. The observation was proper enough, but they drew
from it false consequences. It is far from my thoughts to deny or to
attenuate the services which German science has rendered to our diffi
cult studies, but, in order to profit by those services, we must examine
b
XVlli INTRODUCTION.
them very closely, and apply to them a thorough spirit of discernment.
Above all, we must be most resolute in not taking into account the
haughty criticisms of men of system who treat you as ignorant and
behind the age because you do not admit at the first onset the latest
novelty hatched by the brain of a young doctor, and which, at the best,
can only be useful in encouraging research in the circles of the lewrned.
THE GOSPELS
AND
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION.
CHAPTER I.
THE JEWS AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE.
NEVER was a people so sadly undeceived as was the
Jewish race on the morrow of the day when, contrary
to the most formal assurances of the Divine oracles,
the Temple which they had supposed to be inde
structible collapsed before the assault of the soldiers
of Titus. To have been near the realisation of the
grandest of visions and to be forced to renounce them,
at the very moment when the destroying angel had
already partially withdrawn the cloud, to see every
thing vanish into space ; to be committed through
having prophesied the Divine apparition, and to re
ceive from the harshness of facts the most cruel con
tradiction were not these reasons for doubting the
Temple, nay, for doubting God himself ? Thus the
first years which followed the catastrophe of the year
70 were characterised by an intense feverish ness
perhaps the most intense which the Jewish conscience
had ever experienced. Edom (the name by which
A
2 THE GOSPELS AND
the Jews already distinguished the Roman Empire), the
impious Edom, the eternal enemy of God, triumphed.
Ideas which had appeared to be unimpeachable were
now argued against. Jehovah appeared to have broken
his covenant with the sons of Abraham. It was even
a question if the faith of Israel assuredly the most
ardent that ever existed would succeed in executing
a complete right-about-face against evidence, and by
an unheard-of display of strength continue to hope
against all hope.
The hired assassins, the enthusiasts, had almost all
been killed : those who had survived passed the rest of
their lives in that mournful state of stupefaction which
amongst madmen follows attacks of violent mania.
The Sadducees had almost disappeared in the year
66 with the priestly aristocracy who lived in the
Temple, and drew from it all their prestige. It has
been supposed that some survivors of the great families
took refuge with the Herodians in the north of Syria,
in Armenia, at Palmyra, remained long allied to the
little dynasties of those countries, and shed a final
brilliancy on that Zenobia who appears to us in effect,
in the third century, as a Sadducean Jewess, fore
shadowing by a simple monotheism both Arianism
and Islam. The theory is a plausible one ; but, in any
case, such more or less authentic relics of the Saddu
cean party had become almost strangers to the rest of
the Jewish nation: the Pharisees treated them as
enemies.
That which survived the Temple and remained al
most intact after the disaster at Jerusalem, was Phari
saism: the moderate party in Jewish society, the
party less inclined to mingle politics with religion
than other sections of the people, narrowing the busi
ness of life to the scrupulous accomplishment of the
Law. Strange state of things ! the Pharisees had passed
through the ordeal almost safe and sound; the Revolu
tion had passed over them without injuring them.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 3
Absorbed in their sole preoccupation the exact ob
servance of the Law almost all of them had fled from
Jerusalem before the last convulsions, and had found
an asylum in the neutral towns of Jabneh and Lydda.
The zealots were only individual enthusiasts ; the
Sadducees were but a class ; the Pharisees were the
nation. Essentially pacific, preferring a peaceful and
laborious life, contented with the free practice of their
family worship, these true Israelites resisted all tempta
tions ; they were the corner-stones of Judaism which
passed through the Middle Ages and came down to
our own days.
The Law was, in truth, all that remained to the
Jewish people after the shipwreck of their religious
institutions. Public worship, after the destruction of
the Temple, had been impossible ; prophecy, after the
terrible check which it had received, was dumb ; holy
hymns, music, ceremonies, all had become insipid and
objectless, since the Temple, which served as the navel
of the entire Hebrew cosmos, had ceased to exist. The
Thora, on the contrary, in the non-ritualistic part of
it, was always possible. The Thora was not only a
religious law, it was a complete system of legislation, a
civil code, a personal statute, which made of the people
who submitted to it a sort of republic apart from
the rest of the world. Such was the object to which
the Jewish conscience would henceforward attach it
self with a kind of fanaticism. The ritual had to be
profoundly modified, but the Canon Law was main
tained almost in its entirety. To explain, to practise
the Law with minute exactitude, appeared the sole
end of life. One science only was held in esteem, that
of the Law. Its tradition became the ideal country
of the Jew. The subtle discussions which for about
a hundred years had filled the schools, were as nothing
compared with those which followed. Religious minu
tiae and scrupulous devotion were substituted amongst
the Jews for all the rest of the worship.
4 THE GOSPELS AND
One not less grave consequence springing out of the
new conditions under which Israel was henceforward
to live was the definitive victory of the teacher (doctor)
over the priest. The Temple had perished, but the
school of the Law had been spared. The priest, after
the destruction of the Temple, saw his functions re
duced to very small proportions. The doctor, or, more
properly speaking, the judge, the interpreter of the
Thora, became, on the contrary, an important person
age. The tribunal (Beth-din) was at that time a great
Rabbinical school. The Ab-beth-din (president) is a
chief at once civil and religious. Every titled rabbin
had the right of entry within its limits; its decisions are
determined by the majority of votes. The disciples
standing behind a barrier heard and learned what was
necessary to make them judges and doctors in their turn.
" A tight cistern which did not allow the escape of
a drop of water" became henceforward the ideal of
Israel. There was as yet no written manual of this
traditional law. More than a hundred years had to roll
on before the discussions of the schools became crystal
lised into a body which should be called Mishna, par
excellence, but the root of this book really dates from
the period of which we speak. Although compiled in
Galilee, it was in reality born in Jabneh. Towards the
end of the first century it existed only in the form of
little pamphlets of notes, in style almost algebraical,
and full of abbreviations, which gave the solutions by
the most celebrated rabbins of embarrassing cases.
The most robust memories already gave way under the
weight of tradition and of judicial precedents. Such
a state of things made writing necessary. Thus we
see at this period mention is made of the Mishna,
that is to say, little collections of decisions or halakoth,
which bear the names of their authors. Such was
that of the Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob, who about the
end of the first century was described as " short but
good." The Mishnic treatise Eduioth, which is dis-
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 5
tinguished from all others in that it has uo special
subject and that it is in itself an abridged Mishna, has
for central idea the Eduioth or " testimonies " relative
to prior decisions which were collected at Jabneh and
submitted to revision after the dismissal of Eabbi
Gamaliel the younger. About the same time Rabbi
Eliezer ben Jacob composed from memory the descrip
tion of the sanctuary which forms the basis of the
treatise Middoth. Simon of Mispa, at a still earlier
date, appears as the author of the first edition of the
treatise loma, relating to the Feast of the Atonement,
and perhaps of the treatise Tamid.
The opposition between these tendencies and those
of the nascent Christianity was that of fire and water.
Christians detached themselves ever more and more
from the Law : the Jews fettered themselves with
it frantically. A lively antipathy appears to have
existed amongst Christians against the subtle and un
charitable spirit which every day tended to increase in
the synagogues. Jesus fifty years before already had
chosen this spirit as the object of his severest rebukes.
Since then the casuists had only plunged more and
more deeply into the abysses of their narrow hair
splittings. The misfortunes of the nation had in no
way changed their character. Disputatious, vain,
jealous, susceptible, given to quarrelling for merely
personal motives, they passed their time between
Jabneh and Lydda in excommunicating each other
for the most puerile reasons. James and the relations
of Jesus generally were very strict Pharisees. Paul
himself boasted of being a Pharisee and the son of a
Pharisee. But after the siege the war was open. In
collecting the traditional words of Jesus the change
of situation made itself felt. The word " Pharisee" in
the Gospels generally, as later the word " Jew " in the
Gospel attributed to John, is employed as synonymous
with " enemy of Jesus." Derision of the casuist was
one of the essential elements of the evangelical litera-
6 THE GOSPELS AND
ture, and one of the causes of its success. The really
good man in truth holds nothing in so much horror as
moral pedantry. To clear himself in his own eyes from
the suspicion of dupery, he is constrained sometimes to
doubt his own works, his own merits. He who pre
tends to work out his own salvation by infallible re
ceipts, appears to him the chief enemy of God. Phari
saism became thus something worse than vice, since it
made virtue ridiculous; and nothing pleases us so much
as to see Jesus, the most purely virtuous of men, set a
hypocritical bourgeoisie at defiance, and allowing it to
be understood that the Law of which he was so proud
was perhaps like everything else vanity.
One consequence of the new situation of the Jewish
people was a vast increase of the separatist and ex
clusive spirit. Hated and despised by the world, Israel
withdrew more and more into itself. The perischouth
insociability became a law of public salvation. To live
apart in a purely Jewish world, to add new require
ments to the Law, to render it difficult to fulfil, such
was the aim of the doctors, and they attained it very
cleverly. Excommunications were multiplied. To
observe the Law was so complicated an art that the
Jew had no time to think of anything else. Such was
the origin of the " eighteen measures," a complete code
of sequestration which originally dates from a period
anterior to the destruction of the Temple but which
did not come into operation until after 70. These
eighteen measures were all intended to exaggerate the
isolation of Israel. Forbidden to buy the most neces
sary things amongst Pagans, forbidden to speak their
language, to receive their testimony and their offerings,
forbidden to offer sacrifices for the Emperor. Many
of these prescriptions were at once regretted ; some
even said that the day on which they were adopted
was as sad as that on which the Golden Calf was set
up, but they were never abrogated. A legendary
dialogue expresses the opposite sentiments of the two
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 7
parties which divided the Jewish schools in this matter.
" To-day," says Rabbi Eliezer, " the measure is filled
up." "To-day," says Rabbi Joshua, "it has been made
to overflow." "A vessel full of nuts," says Rabbi
Eliezer, " may yet contain as much oil or sesame as you
wish." " When a jar is full of oil, if you add water
you drive out the oil." Notwithstanding all protests,
the eighteen measures obtained such authority that
some went so far as to say that no power had the right
to abolish them. Perhaps certain of these measures
were inspired by a sullen opposition to Christianity,
and, above all, by the liberal preachings of St Paul.
It would seem that the more the Christians laboured
to overthrow the legal barriers, the more the Jews
laboured to render them impregnable.
It was mainly in what concerned proselytes that
the contrast was marked. Not merely did the Jews
seek no longer to win them, but they displayed towards
these new brethren a scarcely veiled hostility. It had
not yet been said that " proselytes are a leprosy for
Israel ; " but far from encouraging them, they were
dissuaded ; they were told of the numberless dangers
and difficulties to which they exposed themselves by
consorting with a despised race. At the same time,
the hatred against Rome redoubled. The only thoughts
which her name inspired were thoughts of murder and
of bloodshed.
But now, as always in the course of its long history
there was an admirable minority in Israel who pro
tested against the errors of the majority of the nation.
The grand duality which lies at the base of the life of
this singular people continued. The calm, the gentle
ness of the good Jew, was proof against all trials.
Shammai and Hillel, though long dead, were as the
heads of two opposed families ; one representing the nar
row, malevolent, subtle, materialistic spirit ; the other
the broad, benevolent, idealistic side of the religious
genius of Israel. The contrast was striking. Humble,
8 THE GOSPELS AND
polished, affable, putting always the good of others
before their own, the Hillelites,like the Christians, had
for their principle that God " resisteth the proud but
giveth grace to the lowly ; " that honours elude those
who seek them, and follow after those who fly from
them ; that he who hurries will obtain nothing, whilst
he who knows how to wait has time on his side.
Amongst really pious souls singularly bold ideas
sometimes developed themselves. On the one hand
the liberal family of Gamaliel, who had for principle
in their relations with Pagans to care for their poor,
to treat them with politeness even when they wor
shipped their idols, to pay the last respects to their
dead, sought to relax the situation. In business this
family already had relations with the Romans, and
had no scruple in asking from their conquerors the
investiture of a sort of presidency of the Sanhedrim,
and, with their permission, the resumption of the
title of Nasi. On the other hand, an extremely
liberal man, Johanan ben Zakai, was the soul of the
transformation. Long before the destruction of Jeru
salem he had enjoyed a preponderating influence in
the Sanhedrim. During the Revolution he was one
of the chiefs of the moderate party which kept itself
aloof from political questions, and did all that was
possible to prevent the prolongation of a resistance
which must inevitably bring about the destruction of
the Temple. Escaped from Jerusalem, he predicted,
it is asserted, the Empire of Vespasian; one of the
favours which he asked from him was a doctor for
the old Zadok, who, in the years before the siege, had
ruined his health by fasting. It appears certain that
he got into the good graces of the Romans, and that
he obtained from them the re-establishment of the
Sanhedrim at Jabneh. It is doubtful whether he
was ever really a pupil of Hillel, but he was certainly
the inheritor of his spirit. To cause peace to reign
amonofst men was his favourite maxim. It was told
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 9
of him that no one had ever been able to salute
him first, not even a Pagan in the market-place.
Though not a Christian, he was a true disciple of
Jesus. He even went at times, it is said, so far as
to follow the example of the old prophets, denying
the efficacy of worship, and recognising the fact that
justice accomplishes for Pagans all that sacrifice did
for the Jews.
A little consolation came to the frightfully troubled
soul of Israel. Fanatics, at the risk of their lives, stole
into the silent city and furtively offered sacrifice on the
ruins of the Holy of Holies. Some of these madmen
spoke on their return of a mysterious voice which had
come out from the heaps of rubbish, and had declared
acceptance of their sacrifices ; but this excess was
generally condemned. Certain amongst them forbade
all enjoyment, lived in tears and fasting, and drank
only water. Johanan ben Zaka i consoled them : " Be
not sad, my son," said he to one of these despairing
ones. "If we cannot offer sacrifices, there is still a
way of expiating our sins which is quite as efficacious
good works." And he recalled the words of Isaiah,
" I love charity better than sacrifice." Rabbi Joshua
was of the same opinion. " My friends," said he to
those who imposed exaggerated privations upon them
selves, " what is the use of abstaining from meat and
from wine ? " " How," they answered, " should we
eat the flesh which is sacrificed on the altar which is
now destroyed ? should we drink the wine which we
ought to pour out as a libation on the same altar ? "
" Well," replied the Rabbi Joshua, " then eat no bread,
since it is no longer possible to make sacrifices of fine
flour." " Then we must feed upon fruit." " Nay.
Fruits cannot be allowed, since it is no longer possible
to offer first-fruits in the Temple." The force of cir
cumstances decided the matter. The eternity of the
Law was maintained in theory ; it was believed that
even Elias himself could not change a single article of
10 THE GOSPELS ANf)
it; but the destruction of the Temple suppressed in
fact a considerable proportion of the ancient prescrip
tions; there was no room for anything more than
moral casuistry of details or for mysticism. The
developed cabbala is surely of a more modern age.
But at that time many gave themselves to what were
called " the visions of the chariot," that is to say, to
speculations on the mysteries concealed in the visions
of Ezekiel. The Jewish mind was wrapped up in
visions, and created an asylum for itself in the midst
of a hated world. The study became a deliverance.
Rabbi Nehounia gave currency to the principle that
he who takes upon him the yoke of the Law thereby
frees himself from the yoke of the world and of politics.
When this point of detachment is attained, people cease
to be dangerous revolutionaries. Rabbi Hanina was
accustomed to say, " Pray for the established govern
ment : for without it men would eat each other."
The misery was extreme. A heavy taxation weighed
upon all, and the sources of revenue were dried up.
The mountains of Judea remained uncultivated and
covered with ruins ; property itself was very uncertain.
When it was cultivated, the cultivator was liable to be
evicted by the Romans. As for Jerusalem, it was
nothing but a heap of broken stones. Pliny even
spoke of it as of a city that had ceased to exist. With
out doubt, the Jews who had been tempted to come
in considerable numbers to encamp upon the ruins,
had been expelled from thence. Yet the historians
who insist most strongly on the total destruction of
the city, admit that some old men and some women
were left. Josephus depicts for us the first sitting
and weeping in the dust of the sanctuary, and the
second reserved by the conquerors for the last out
rages. The 10th Fretensian Legion continued to act
as a garrison in a corner of the deserted city. The
bricks which have been found with the stamp of that
legion, prove that the men of it built it. It is probable
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 11
that furtive visits to the still visible foundations of
the Temple were tolerated or permitted by the soldiers
for a money consideration. Christians, in particular,
preserved the memory and the worship of certain
places, notably of the tabernacle of Mount Sion, where
it was believed that the disciples of Jesus met after
the Ascension, as well as the tomb of James, the brother
of the Lord, near the Temple. Golgotha probably was
not forgotten. As nothing was rebuilt in the town or
in the suburbs, the enormous stones of the great edi
fices remained untouched in their places, so that all
the monuments were still perfectly recognisable.
Driven thus from their Holy City and from the
region which they loved, the Jews spread themselves
over the towns and villages of the plain which extends
from the foot of the Mountain of Judea to the sea.
The Jewish population multiplied there. One locality
above all was the scene of that quasi-resurrection of
Pharisaism, and became the theological capital of the
Jews until the war of Bar Coziba. This was the city
originally Philistine of Jabneh or Jamnia, four
leagues and a half to the south of Jaffa. It was a
considerable town, inhabited by Pagans and Jews;
but the Jews predominated there, although the town,
since the war of Pompey, had ceased to form part of
Judea. The struggles between the two populations
had been lively. In his campaigns of 67 and 68 Ves
pasian had had to show himself there to establish his
authority. Provisions abounded there. In the earlier
days of the blockade many peaceable wise men, such
as Johanan ben Zaka i, whom the chimera of natural
independence did not lead away, came thither for
shelter. There it was that they learned of the burning
of the Temple. They wept, rent their garments, put
on mourning, but found that it was still worth while
to live, that they might see if God had not reserved a
future for Israel. It was, it is said, at the entreaty
of Johanan that Vespasian spared Jabneh and its
12 THE GOSPELS AND
savants. The truth is that before the war a Rab
binical school flourished in Jabneh. For unknown
reasons, it was a part of the Roman polity to allow
it to continue, and after the arrival of Johanan ben
Zakai it assumed a greater importance.
Rabbi Gamaliel the younger put the top stone to
the celebrity of Jabneh when he took the direction of
the school after Rabbi Johanan retired to Berour-Hail.
Jabneh, from this moment, became the first Jewish
academy of Palestine. The Jews from various coun
tries assembled there for the feasts, as formerly they
had gone up to Jerusalem, and as formerly they pro
fited by the journey to the Holy City to take council
with the Sanhedrim and the schools upon doubtful
cases, so at Jabneh they submitted difficult questions
to the Beth-din. This tribunal was only rarely and
improperly called by the name of the ancient Sanhe
drim ; but it exercised an undisputable authority ; the
doctors of all Judea sometimes met in it, and so gave
to the Beth-din the character of a Supreme Court.
The memory was long preserved of the orchard where
the sittings of this tribunal were held, and of the
dovecote under whose shade the president sat.
Jabneh appeared thus as a sort of resuscitated Jeru
salem. As to privileges and religious obligations, it
was completely assimilated to Jerusalem ; its syna
gogue was considered the legitimate heiress of that of
Jerusalem as the centre of the now religious authority.
The Romans themselves looked at it in this light, and
accorded to the Nasi or Ab-beth-din of Jabneh an official
authority. This was the commencement of the Jewish
patriarchate which developed itself later and became
an institution analogous to the Christian patriarchates
of the Ottoman Empire of our own days. These
magistratures, at once civil and religious, conferred by
the political power, have always been in the East the
means employed by great Empires to disembarrass
themselves of the responsibilities of their satraps.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 13
The existence of a personal statute was in no way
disquieting to the Romans, above all, in a town partly
idolatrous and Roman, where the Jews were restrained
by the military force and by the antipathy of the rest
of the population. Religious conversations between
Jews and non-Jews appear to have been frequent in
Jabneh. Tradition shows us Johanan ben Zaka i main
taining frequent controversies with infidels, and fur
nishing them with explanations of the Bible, on the
Jewish festivals. His answers are often evasive, and
sometimes alone with his disciples he allows himself
to smile at the unsatisfactory solutions he has given
to Pagan difficulties.
Lydda had its schools which rivalled those of Jabneh
in celebrity, or rather which were a sort of dependency
of them. The two towns were about four leagues
apart : when a man had been excommunicated at one
he betook himself to the other. All the villages,
Danite or Philistine, of the surrounding maritime plain
Berour Hail, Bakiin, Gibthon, Gimso, Bene Barak,
which were all situated to the south of Antipatris,
and were until then hardly considered as belonging to
the Holy Land at all served also as an asylum to
celebrated doctors. Finally the Darom, the southern
part of Judea, situated between Eleutheropolis and
the Dead Sea, received many fugitive Jews. It was a
rich country, far from the routes frequented by the
Romans, and almost at the limit of their domination.
It thus appears that the current which carried
Rabbinism towards Galilee had not yet made itself
felt. There were exceptions. Rabbi Eliezer ben
Jacob, the editor of one of the first Mishna, appears
to have been a Galilean. Towards the year 100
the Mishnic doctors are seen approaching Csesarea
in Galilee. It was, however, only after the war of
Hadrian that Tiberias and upper Galilee became par
excellence the country of the Talmud.
14 THE GOSPELS AND
CHAPTER II.
BETHER: THE BOOK OF JUDITH: THE JEWISH CANON.
DURING the first years which followed the war, it
appears that a centre of population was formed near
to Jerusalem, which fifty or sixty years later was
destined to play a very important part. Two leagues
and a quarter west-south-west of Jerusalem was a
village until then obscure, known as Bether. Many
years before the siege a great number of rich and
peaceable citizens of Jerusalem, perceiving the storm
which was about to break over the capital, had bought
lands to which to retire. Bether was in effect situated
in a fertile valley outside the important routes which
connect Jerusalem with the north and with the sea.
An acropolis commanded the village, built near a beauti
ful spring, and forming a sort of natural fortification ; a
lower plateau formed a sort of step to the lower town.
After the catastrophe of -the year 70, a considerable
body of fugitives met there. Synagogues, a sanhedrim,
and schools were established. Bether became a Holy
City, a sort of equivalent to Zion. The little scarped
hill was covered with houses, which, supporting them
selves by ancient works in the rock and by the natural
form of the hill, formed a species of citadel which was
completed with steps of great stones. The isolated
situation of Bether induces the belief that the Romans
did not greatly trouble themselves about these works ;
perhaps also a part of them dated from before the
time of Titus. Supported by the great Jewish com
munities of Lydda and of Jabneh, Bether thus became
a sufficiently large town, and, as it were, the entrenched
camp of fanaticism in Judea. We shall there see
Judaism offer to the Roman power a last and impotent
resistance.
At Bether, a singular book appears to have been
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 15
composed, a perfect mirror of the conscience of Israel
at that date, where may be found the powerful recol
lection of past defects and a fiery prediction of future
revolts. I speak of the book of Judith. The ardent
patriot who composed that Agada in Hebrew, copied
according to the custom of the Hebrew Agadas a well-
known history, that of Deborah who saved Israel from
her enemies by killing their chief. Every line is full
of transparent allusions. The ancient enemy of the
people of God, Nebuchadnezzar (a perfect type of the
Roman Empire, which, according to the Jews, was but
the work of an idolatrous propaganda), desired to
subject the whole world to himself, and to cause it to
adore him, to the exclusion of every other god. He
charges his general Holophernes with this duty. All
bow before him save only the Jewish people. Israel
is not a military people but a mountaineering race
difficult to force. So long as it observes the Law it is
invincible.
A sensible Pagan who knows Israel, Achior (brother
of the light), tries to stop Holophernes. The one thing
necessary, according to him, is to know if Israel fails to
keep the Law ; in this case, the conquest will be easy ;
if not, it will be necessary to beware how one attacks
her. All is useless; Holophernes marches on Jerusalem.
The key of Jerusalem is a place on the north, on the
side of Dothaim, at the entrance of the mountainous
region to the south of the plain of Esdraelon. This
place is called Beth-eloah (the House of God). The
author describes it exactly on the plan of Bether. It
is placed at the opening of a Wadi (Fiumara or bed
of a watercourse), on a mountain at the foot of which
runs a stream indispensable to the people, the cisterns
of the upper town being relatively small. Holophernes
besieges Beth-eloah, which is soon reduced by thirst to
the direst extremity. But it is an attribute of Divine
Providence to choose the weakest agents for the
greatest works. A widow, a zealot, Judith (the Jewess),
16 THE GOSPELS AND
arises and prays ; she goes forth and presents herself
to Holophernes as a rigid devotee who cannot tolerate
the breaches of the Law of which she has been witness
in the town. She wishes to point out to him a sure
means of conquering the Jews. They are dying of
hunger and thirst ; which induces them to fail with
regard to the precepts concerning food, and to eat the
first fruits reserved for the priests. They have sent to
ask for the authorisation of the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem,
but at Jerusalem everything is relaxed, everything is
allowed, so that it will be easy to conquer them. " I
will pray to God," she adds, " that I may know when
they shall sin." Then at the moment when Holophernes
thinks himself assured of all her complaisances she
cuts off his head. In this expedition she has not once
failed to observe the Law. She prays and performs
her ablutions at the appointed hours ; she eats only of
the meats which she has brought with her. Even on
the evening when she is about to prostitute herself to
Holophernes, she drinks her own wine. Judith lives
after all this for a hundred and five years, refusing the
most advantageous marriages, happy and honoured.
During her life and for a long time after her death
no one dares to disquiet the Jewish people. Achior
is also well rewarded for having known Israel well.
He is circumcised, and becomes a Son of Abraham
for ever.
The author, from his singular taste for imagining
the conversion of Pagans, from his persuasion that
God loves the weak above all, that he is par excellence
the God of the hopeless, approaches Christian senti
ments. But by his materialistic attachment to the
principles of the Law, he shows himself a pure
Pharisee. He dreams of an autonomy for the
Israelites under the autonomy of the Sanhedrim and
their Nasi. His ideal is absolutely that of Jabneh.
There is a mechanism of human life which God loves ;
the Law is the absolute rule of it ; Israel is created to
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 17
accomplish it. It is a people like to no other ; a
people whom the heathen hate because they know
them to be capable of leading the whole world ; an
invincible people, because they do not sin. To the
scruples of the Pharisee are joined the fanaticism of
the Zealot, the appeal to the dagger to defend the
Law, the apology for the most sanguinary examples
of religious violence. The imitation of the book of
Esther penetrates the whole work ; the author
evidently read that book not as it exists in the
original Hebrew but with the interpolations which
the Greek text offers. The literary execution is
weak ; the feeble parts common-places of the Jewish
agada, canticles, prayers, etc. recall at times the tone
of the Gospel according to St Luke. The theory of
the Messianic claims is, however, little developed.
Judith is still rewarded for her virtue by a long life.
The book was doubtless read with passion in the
circles of Bether and of Jabneh ; but it may readily be
believed that Josephus knew nothing of it at Rome.
It was probably suppressed as being full of dangerous
allusions. The success in any case was not lasting
amongst the Jews ; the original Hebrew was soon lost ;
but the Greek translation made itself a place in the
Christian Canon. We shall see this translation known
at Rome towards the year 95. In general it was
immediately after their publication that the apocryphal
books were welcomed and quoted : those novelties had
an ephemeral popularity, then fell into oblivion.
The need of a rigorously limited canon of the sacred
books made itself felt more and more. The Thora,
the Prophets, the Psalms, were the admitted foun
dation of all. Ezekiel alone created some difficulties
by the passages wherein he is not in accord with
the Thora, from which he was extricated only by
subtleties. There was some hesitation about Job,
whose hardihood was not in accord with the pietism
of the times. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of
B
18 THE GOSPELS AND
Songs were assailed with much greater violence. The
picture so freely sketched iii the seventh chapter of
Proverbs, the altogether profane character of the
Canticles, the scepticism of Ecclesiastes, were thought
sufficient to deprive those writings of the character
of sacred books. Happily, admiration carried them.
They were admitted, so to speak, subject to correction
and to interpretation. The last lines of Ecclesiastes
appeared to extenuate the sceptical crudities of the
text. In the Canticles the critics began to seek for
mystical profundities. Pseudo-Daniel had conquered
his place by dint of audacity and assurance ; he failed,
however, to force the already impenetrable line of the
ancient prophets, and he remained in the last pages of
the sacred volume side by side with Esther and the
more recent historical compilations. The son of Sirach
was stranded simply for having avowed too frankly
his modern editing. All this constituted a little sacred
library of twenty-four works, the order of which was
thenceforward irrevocably fixed. Many variations
still existed ; the absence of vowel points left many
passages in a state of deplorable ambiguity which
different parties interpreted in a sense favourable to
their own ideas. . It was many centuries before the
Hebrew Bible formed a volume almost without
variants, and the readings of which were settled down
to their last details.
As to the Books excluded from the Canon, their
reading was forbidden, and it was even sought to
destroy them. This it is which explains how books
essentially Jewish, and having quite as much right as
Daniel and Esther to remain in the Jewish Bible, are
only preserved by Greek translations. Thus the
Maccabean histories, the book of Tobit, the books of
Enoch, the wisdom of the son of Sirach, the book of
Baruch, the book called " the third of Esdras," various
chapters of which belong to the book of Daniel (the
Three Children in the Furnace) Snsa.nnah, Bel and the
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 19
Dragon, the Prayer of Manasseli, the letter of Jeremiah,
the Psalter of Solomon, the Assumption of Moses, a
whole series of agadic and apocalyptic writings
neglected by the Jews of the Talmudic tradition, have
been guarded only by Christian hands. The literary
community which existed during more than a hundred
years between the Jews and the Christians, caused
every Jewish book impressed with a pious spirit and
imbued with Messianic ideas to be at once accepted by
the Churches. At the beginning of the second century
the Jewish people, devoted as they were exclusively
to the study of the Law, and having no taste save for
casuistry, neglected these writings. Many Christian
Churches, on the contrary, persisted in placing a high
value upon them, and admitted them more or less
officially into their Canon. We see, for example, the
Apocalypse of Esdras, the work of an enthusiastic
Jew like the book of Judith, saved from destruction
only through the favour which it enjoyed amongst
the disciples of Jesus.
Judaism and Christianity still lived together like
those double beings which are joined by one part of
their organisation though distinct as regards all the
rest. Each of these beings transmitted to the other
its sensations and its desires. A book which was the
fruit of the most ardent Jewish passions, a book zealous
for its first chief, was immediately adopted by Christi
anity, was preserved by Christianity, introduced itself,
thanks to it, into the Canon of the Old Testament. A
fraction of the Christian Church, it cannot be doubted,
had felt the emotions of the siege, had shared in the
grief and anger of the Jews over the destruction of
the Temple, had sympathised with the rebels ; the
author of the Apocalypse, who probably still lived, had
surely mourning at his heart, and calculated the days
of the great vengeance of Israel. But already the
Christian conscience had found other issues ; it was
not only the school of Paul, it was the family of the
20 THE GOSPELS AND
Master which passed through the most extraordinary
crises, and transformed, according to the necessities of
the time, the very memories which it had preserved
of Jesus.
CHAPTER III
EBION BEYOND JORDAN.
WE have seen in 68 the Christian Church of Jerusalem
carried on by the relatives of Jesus fly from the city
delivered over to terror, and take refuge at Pella on
the other side of Jordan. We have seen the author of
the Apocalypse some months afterwards employ the
most lively and touching images to express the protec
tion which God extended to the fugitive Church, and
the repose which it enjoyed in the desert. It is pro
bable that this sojourn was prolonged for many years
after the siege. A return to Jerusalem was impossible,
and the antipathy between Christianity and the
Pharisees was already too strong to allow of the
Christians joining the bulk of the nation on the side
of Jabneh and Lydda. The saints of Jerusalem dwelt
therefore beyond the Jordan. The expectation of the
final catastrophe had become extremely vivid. The
three years and a half which the Apocalypse fixed for
the fulfilment of its predictions, expired about the
month of July 72.
The destruction of the Temple had certainly been
a surprise for the Christians. They had no more
believed in it than had the Jews. Sometimes they
had imagined Nero the Anti-Christ returning from
amongst the Parthians, marching upon Rome with his
allies, sacking it, and then putting himself at the
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 21
head of the armies of Judea, profaning Jerusalem, and
massacring the people of the just on the hill of Zion ;
but no one had supposed that the Temple itself would
disappear. An event so prodigious, when once it
occurred, was sufficient to put them beside themselves.
The misfortunes of the Jewish nation were regarded
as a punishment for the murders of Jesus and of
James. In reflecting upon it they endeavoured to find
that in all that God had been especially good to his
elect. It was because of them that he had deigned to
shorten the days which if they had lasted would have
seen the extermination of all flesh. The frightful
sufferings that they had gone through dwelt in the
memory of the Christians of the East, and was for
them what the persecutions of Nero were for the
Christians of Rome, "the great tribulation," the cer
tain prelude to the days of the Messiah.
One calculation, moreover, appears to have greatly en
gaged the Christians at this time. They remembered
this passage of the Psalm (xcv. 8, et seq.), " To-day if
ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts (as at
Meriba as in the day of Massa *) in the wilderness.
. . . Forty years long was I grieved with this genera
tion and said, It is a people that do err in their hearts,
for they have not known my ways ; unto whom I sware
in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest."
They applied to the stubborn Jews the words which
referred to their rebellion in the desert, and as nearly
forty years had gone by since the short but brilliant
public career of Jesus, he was believed to address to
the unbelieving that pressing appeal, " Forty years
have I waited for you, the time is at hand, take care "
(cf. Heb. iii. 7, et seq.) All these coincidences, which
placed the Apocalyptic year about the year 73, the
recent memories of the revolution and of the siege,
the strange outbreak of fever, of frenzy, of exaltation,
of madness, through which they had passed, and, by
* These words are not in either of tlie English versions. TRANS.
22 THE GOSPELS AND
way of crowning marvel, the fact that after signs
so evident men had still the sad courage to resist the
voice of Jesus which called them all appeared un
heard of, and capable of explanation only by a miracle.
It was clear that the moment was approaching when
Jesus should appear and the mystery of the times
should be accomplished.
So great was the influence of that fixed idea that
the town of Pella came to be regarded as a temporary
asylum where God himself fed his elect and preserved
them from the hatred of the wicked (Rev. xii. 14) ;
there was no thought of abandoning a place which
they believed to have been pointed out by a revela
tion from heaven. But when it was clear that they
must resign themselves to a longer life, there was a
movement in the community. A great number of the
brethren, amongst whom were members of the family
of Jesus, left Pella and went to establish themselves
some leagues off in Batanea, a province which belonged
to Herod Agrippa II., but which was falling more and
more under the direct sovereignty of the Romans.
This country was then very prosperous ; it was covered
with towns and monuments ; the rule of the Herods
had been benevolent, and had founded there that
brilliant civilisation which lasted from the first cen
tury of our era until Islam. The town chosen by
preference by the disciples and relations of Jesus was
Kokaba near Ashtaroth Carnaim, a little beyond
Adria, and very near the frontier of the kingdom of
the Nabathites. Kokaba was only some thirteen or
fourteen leagues from Pella, and the Churches of these
two localities might long remain in close connection.
Without doubt many Christians, from the times of
Vespasian and of Titus, returned to Galilee and Sa
maria ; yet it was only after the time of Hadrian that
Galilee became the rendezvous of the Jewish popula
tion, and that the intellectual activity of the nation
concentrated itself there.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 23
The name which these pious guardians of the tradi
tion of Jesus gave themselves was (" Ebionim "} or
" poor." Faithful to the spirit which had said
" Blessed are the poor " (" ebionim ") and which had
characteristically attributed to the disinherited of this
world the Kingdom of Heaven and the inheritance
of the Gospel, they gloried in their poverty, an.d
continued, like the primitive Church of Jerusalem,
to live upon alms. We have seen St Paul always
preoccupied with his poor of Jerusalem, and St James
taking the name of " poor " as a title of nobility,
(James ii. 5, 6). A crowd of passages from the Old
Testament, where the word Ebion is employsd to dis
tinguish the pious man, and by extension the whole
pietism of Israel, the reunion of the saints of Israel,
wretched, gentle, humble, despised of the world but
beloved of God, were associated with the sect. The
word " poor " implied a shade of tenderness, as when
one says, " The poor dear man ! " This " poor of
God" whose miseries and humiliations the prophets
and the psalmists had told of, whose glorious
future they had announced, was accepted as the
symbolical .title of the little Church of Pella and of
Kokaba across the Jordan, the continuator of that of
Jerusalem. And as in the old Hebrew tongue the
word Ebion had received a metaphorical signification
to designate the pious part of the people of God, in
the same way the saintly little congregation of
JBatanea, considering itself the only true Israel, the
" Israel of God," heir of the heavenly kingdom, called
itself the poor, the beloved of God. Ebion was thus
often employed in a collective sense, almost as was
Israel, or, as amongst ourselves, personifications such
as " Jacques Bonhomme." Li the remote sections of
the Church, to whom the good poor of Batanea were
almost strangers, Ebion became a personage, the ac
cepted founder of the sect of the Ebionites.
The name by which the sectaries were known
24 THE GOSPELS AND
amongst the other populations of Batanea, was that
of Nazarenes or Nazoreans. It was known that
Jesus, his relations and his first disciples, belonged to
Nazareth or its environs ; they were described there
fore by their place of birth. It is supposed, perhaps
not without reason, that the name of Nazarenes was
especially applied to the Christians of Galilee, who
had taken refuge in Batanea, whilst the name of
Ebionim continued to be the title which the mendi
cant saints of Jerusalem gave themselves. However
this may be, " Nazarenes " remained always in the
East the generic word by which Christians were
designated. Mahomet knew them by no other, and
the Mussulmans use it to this day. By a singular
contrast, the word " Nazarenes," after a certain date,
presented like " Ebionites " an offensive sense in the
opinion of Greek and Latin Christians. As in almost
all great movements, it came to pass that the founders
of the new religion were in the eyes of the foreign
crowd which was affiliated to it, simply retrograde
persons and heretics ; those who had been the corner
stones of the sect found themselves isolated, and, as
it were, ostracised. The name of Ebion by which
they described themselves, and which conveyed to
their minds the loftiest meaning, became an insult,
and was, out of Syria, synonymous with " dangerous
sectary." Jokes were made about it, and it was
ironically interpreted in the sense of " poor-spirited."
The ancient name of Nazarenes, after the beginning
of the fourth century, served to designate for the
orthodox Catholic Church heretics who were scarcely
Christians at all.
This singular misunderstanding explains itself when
it is remembered that the Ebionim and the Nazarenes
remained faithful to the primitive spirit of the Church
of Jerusalem, and of the brothers of Jesus, according
to whom Jesus was no more than a prophet chosen
of God to save Israel, whilst in the Churches founded
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 25
by Paul, Jesus became more and more the incarnation
of God. According to the Greek Christians, Chris
tianity took the place of the religion of Moses, as
a superior worship taking the place of an inferior.
In the eyes of the Christians of Batanea, this was
blasphemy. Not merely did they refuse to consider
the Law as abolished, but they observed it with re
doubled fervour. They regarded circumcision as
obligatory, they observed the Sabbath, as well as the
first day of the week, they practised ablutions and all
the Jewish ceremonies. They studied Hebrew with
care, and read the Bible in Hebrew. Their canon
was the Jewish canon ; already, perhaps, they began
by making arbitrary retrenchments.
Their admiration for Jesus was unbounded : they
described him as being in a peculiar degree the
Prophet of Truth, the Messiah, the Son of God, the
elect of God : they believed in his resurrection, but
they never got beyond that Jewish idea according to
which a man- God is a monstrosity. Jesus, in their
minds, was a mere man, the son of Joseph, born under
the ordinary conditions of humanity, without miracle.
It was very slowly that they learned to explain his
birth by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Some ad
mitted that on the day on which he was adopted by
God, the Holy Spirit or the Christ had descended
upon him in the visible form of a dove, so that Jesus
did not become the Son of God and anointed by the
Holy Ghost until after his baptism. Others, ap
proaching more nearly to Buddhist conceptions, held
that he attained the dignity of Messiah, and of Son
of God, by his perfection, by his continual progress,
by his union with God, and, above all, by his extra
ordinary feat of observing the whole Law. To hear
them, Jesus- alone had solved this difficult problem.
When they were pressed, they admitted that any other
man who could do the same thing would obtain the
same honour. They were consequently compelled, in
26 THE GOSPELS AND
their accounts of the life of Jesus, to show him accom
plishing the fulfilment of the whole Law ; wrongly or
rightly applied, they constantly cited these words,
" I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Many, in
short, carried towards gnostic and cabbalist ideas, saw
in him a great archangel, the first of those of his
order, a created being to whom God had given power
over the whole visible creation, and upon whom was
laid the especial task of abolishing sacrifices.
Their churches were called " synagogues," their
priests " archi-synagogues." They forbade the use of
flesh, and practised all the austerities of the hasidim,
austerities which, as is well known, made up the
greatest part of the sanctity of James, the Lord s
brother. Peter also obtained all their respect. It
was under the names of these two apostles that they
put forth their apocryphal revelations. On the other
hand, there was no curse which they did not utter
against Paul. They called him "the man of Tarsus,"
" the Apostate ; " they told only the most ridiculous
histories of him ; they refused him the title of Jew,
and pretended that it might be on the side of his
father, or it might be on that of his mother, he had
had only Pagans for ancestors. A genuine Jew
speaking of the abrogation of the Law, appeared to
them an absolute impossibility.
We speedily discern a literature springing out of
this order of ideas and passions. The good sectaries
of Kokaba obstinately turned their backs upon the
West, upon the future. Their eyes were for ever
turned towards Jerusalem, whose miraculous restora
tion they confidently anticipated. They called it " the
House of God," and as they turned towards it in
prayer, it is to be believed that they gave to it a
species of adoration. A keen eye might have dis
covered from that that they were in the way of becom
ing heretics, and that some day they would be treated
as profane in the house which they had founded.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 27
An absolute difference in a word separated the
Christianity of the Nazarene of the Ebionim of
the relatives of Jesus, from the Christianity which
triumphed later on. For the immediate successors of
Jesus it was a question not of replacing Judaism but
of crowning it by the advent of the Messiah. The
Christian Church was for them only a re-union of
Hasidim, of true Israelites admitting a fact that for a
Jew, not a Sadducee, might appear perfectly possible ;
it was that Jesus put to death and raised again was
the Messiah, that after a very brief delay he would
come to take possession of the throne of David and
accomplish the prophecies. If they had been told
that they were deserters from Judaism, they would
certainly have cried out, and would have protested
that they were true Jews and the heirs of the pro
mises. To renounce the Mosaic Law would have been,
from their point of view, an apostacy ; they no more
dreamed of setting themselves free from it than of
liberating others. What they hoped to inaugurate
was the complete triumph of Judaism, and not a new
religion abrogating that which had been promulgated
from Sinai.
Return to the Holy City was forbidden them : but
as they hoped that the prohibition would not last
long, the important members of the refugee Church
continued to associate together, and called themselves
always the Church of Jerusalem. From the time of
their arrival at Pella, they gave a successor to James,
the Lord s brother, and naturally they chose that
successor from the family of the Master. Nothing is
more obscure than the things which concern the
brothers and cousins of Jesus in the Judeo-Christian
Church of Syria. Certain indications lead us to believe
that Jude, brother of the Lord, and brother of James,
was, for some time, head of the Church of Jerusalem,
but it is not easy to say when or under what circum
stances. He whom all tradition designates as having
28 THE GOSPELS AND
been the immediate successor of James after the siege
of Jerusalem, was Simon, son of Cleophas. All the
brothers of Jesus, about the year 75, were probably
dead. Jude had left children and grand-children.
From motives of which we are ignorant it was not
from amongst the descendants of the brothers of Jesus
that the head of the Church was taken. The Oriental
principle of heredity was followed. Simon, son of
Cleophas, was probably the last of the cousins-german
of Jesus who was still alive. He might have seen and
heard Jesus in his childhood. Although he was beyond
Jordan, Simon considered himself as chief of the
Church of Jerusalem, and as heir of the singular
powers which this title had conferred on James, the
Lord s brother.
The greatest uncertainty prevails as to the return of
fche exiled Church (or rather of a part of that Church)
to the city at once so guilty and so holy, which had
crucified Jesus and was nevertheless to be the seat of
his future glory. The fact of the return is incontest
able, but the date of the event is unknown. Strictly
we might put back the date to the moment when
Hadrian decided on the rebuilding of the city, that
is to say, until the year 122. It is more probable, how
ever, that the return of the Christians took place shortly
after the complete pacification of Judea. The Romans
undoubtedly relaxed their severity towards a people
so peaceable as the disciples of Jesus. Some hundreds
of saints might well dwell upon Mount Sion in the
houses which the destruction had respected, without
the city ceasing to be considered a field of ruins and
desolation. The 10th Fretensian Legion alone would
form around it a certain group of inhabitants. Mount
Sion, as we have already said, was an exception to the
general appearance of the town. The meeting-place
of the Apostles, many other buildings, and particu
larly seven synagogues, one of which was preserved
until the time of Constantine, were almost intact
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 29
amongst the surrounding ruins, and recalled that verse
of Isaiah, " The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage
in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,
as a besieged city." It was there we may believe that
the little colony fixed itself which established the con
tinuity of the Church at Jerusalem. We may also
believe if we will that it was placed in one of those
straggling Jewish villages near Jerusalem, such as
Bether, which are ideally identified with the Holy
City. In any case, this Church of Mount Sion was,
until the time of Hadrian, by no means numerous.
The title of chief of the Church of Jerusalem appears
to have been only a sort of honorary Pontificate, a
presidency of honour, not carrying with it a real cure
of souls. The relatives of Jesus especially appear to
have remained beyond the Jordan.
The honour of possessing amongst their body per
sons so distinguished inspired an extraordinary pride
amongst the Churches of Batanea. It seems probable
that at the moment of the departure of the Church
of Jerusalem for Pella, some of " the twelve," that is
to say, the Apostles chosen by Jesus Matthew, for ex
ample were still alive, and were amongst the number
of emigrants. Certain of the apostles may have been
younger than Jesus, and consequently not very old at
the date of which we speak. The data we have to go
upon concerning the apostles who remained in the
Holy Land and did not follow the example of Peter
and John, are so incomplete that it is impossible to be
certain on this point. The " Seven," that is to say the
Deacons chosen by the first Church of Jerusalem, were
also without doubt dead or dispersed. The relatives
of Jesus inherited all the importance which the chosen
of the first Coenaculum had had. From the year 70
to about the year 110 they really governed the Churches
beyond the Jordan, and formed a sort of Christian
Senate. The family of Cleophas especially enjoyed
in devout circles a universally recognised authority.
30 THE GOSPELS AND
The relatives of Jesus were pious people, tranquil,
gentle, modest, labouring with their hands, faithful to
the rigid principles of Jesus with regard to poverty,
but at the same time strict Jews, putting the title of
child of Israel before every other advantage. They
were much reverenced, and a name was given to
them (perhaps maraniin or morano ie) of which the
Greek equivalent was desposynoi. For a long time
past, doubtless even during the life-time of Jesus, it
had been supposed that he was of the lineage of
David, since it was admitted that the Messiah should
be of David s race. The admission of such an ancestry
for Jesus implied it also for his family. These good
people thought much of it, and were not a little proud
of it. We see them constantly occupied in constructing
genealogies, which rendered probable the little fraud
of which the Christian legend had need. When they
were too much embarrassed they took refuge behind
the persecutions of Herod, which they pretended had
destroyed the genealogical books. Nor did they stop
here. Sometimes they maintained that the work had
been done from memory, sometimes that they had
had copies of ancient chronicles whereby to construct
it. It was admitted that they had done "the best
that they could." Two of these genealogies have
come down to us, one in the Gospel attributed to St
Matthew, the other in the Gospel of St Luke, and it
appears that neither of them satisfied the Ebionim,
since their Gospel did not contain them, and the
churches of Syria always protested strongly against
them.
This movement, inoffensive though it was as a
matter of policy, excited suspicion. It appears that
the Roman authorities had more than once kept a
watch upon these real or pretended descendants of
David. Vespasian had heard of the hopes which the
Jews founded upon a mysterious representative of
their ancient royal race. Fearing that they meant
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 31
only a pretext for new insurrections, he caused all
those who belonged to this line, or who boasted of
being of it, to be sought out. This gave rise to much
annoyance, which, perhaps, reached the chief of the
Church oi Jerusalem at Batanea. We shall see these
inquiries renewed with much more rigour under
Domitian.
The imminent danger which these speculations about
3nealogy and royal descent implied for the nascent
hristianity, needs no elaborate demonstration. A
kind of Christian aristocracy was being created In
the political world the nobility are almost necessary
to the state, politics having to deal with vulgar
struggles which make of them a matter matter is
material rather than ideal. A state is strong only
when a certain number of families, by traditional
privilege, find it alike their duty and their interest
to transact its business, to represent it, to defend it.
But in the ideal order, birth is nothing ; everyone is
valued in proportion to what he discerns of the truth,
to what he realises of the good. Institutions which
have a religious, literary, or moral aim are lost when
considerations of family, of caste, of heredity come to
prevail amongst them. The nephews and the cousins
of Jesus would have been the destruction of Christi
anity if the Churches of Paul had not been of sufficient
strength to act as a counterpoise to that aristocracy,
whose tendency had been to proclaim itself alone
respectable, and to treat all converts as intruders.
Pretensions analogous to those of the sons of Ali in
Islam would have been produced. Islamism would
certainly have perished under the embarrassments
caused by the family of the Prophet, if the result of
the struggles of the first century after the Hejira had
not been to throw into an inferior rank all those who
were too nearly related to the person of the Founder.
The true heirs of a great man are those who continue
his work, and not his relatives according to the flesh.
3*2 THE GOSPELS AND
Considering the tradition of Jesus as its property, the
little coterie of Nazarenes would have surely stifled it.
Happily the narrow circle speedily disappeared : the
relatives of Jesus were speedily forgotten in the depths
of The Hauran. They lost all importance, and left
Jesus to his true family, the only one which he would
have recognised those who " hear the word of God
and keep it." Many passages from the Gospels where
the family of Jesus is seen in an unfavourable light,
may spring out of the antipathy which the nobiliary
pretensions of the desposynoi could not fail to pro
voke around them.
CHAPTER IV.
THE RELATIONS OF JEWS AND CHRISTIANS.
THE relations of these altogether Hebrew Churches of
Batanea and of Galilee with the Jews must have been
frequent. It is to the Judeo- Christians that an ex
pression frequent in Talmudic traditions, that of
minim,, corresponding to " heretics," belongs. The
minim are represented as a species of wonder-workers
and spiritual doctors, curing the sick by the power of
the name of Jesus and by the application of holy oil.
It will be remembered that this was one of the pre
cepts of St James. Cures of this sort, as well as exor
cisms, were the great means of conversion employed
by the disciples of Jesus, especially with regard to the
Jews. . The Jews appropriated to themselves these
marvellous receipts, and until the third century we
find the doctors curing in the name of Jesus. No one
was astonished. The belief in daily miracles was such
that the Talmud ordains the prayer that every one
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 33
must make when " private miracles " happen to him.
The best proof that Jesus believed that he could work
miracles is, that the members of his family and his
most authentic disciples had in some sort the speciality
of performing them. It is true that by the same argu
ment we must also believe that Jesus was a strict Jew,
which is repugnant to our ideas.
Judaism, besides, included two tendencies which put
it into opposite relations with regard to Christianity.
The Law and the Prophets continued always the two
poles of the Jewish people. The Law gave occasion
to that bizarre scholasticism which was called the
halaka, out of which the Talmud sprang. The pro
phets, the psalms, the poetic books inspired an ardent,
popular preaching, brilliant dreams, unlimited hopes ;
what was called the agada, a word which embraces at
once passionate fables like that of Judith and the
apocryphal apocalypses which agitated the people.
Just as the casuists of Jabneh showed themselves con
temptuous of the disciples of Jesus, so the agadists
sympathised with them. The agadists, in common
with the Christians, had a dislike for the Pharisees,
a taste for Messianic explanations of the prophetic
books, an arbitrary exegesis which recalls the fashion
in which the preachers of the Middle Ages played with
texts, a belief in the approaching reign of a descendant
of David. Like the Christians, the agadists sought to
connect the genealogy of the patriarchal family with
that of the old dynasty. Like them, they sought to
diminish the burden of the Law. Their system of
allegorical interpretation which transformed a code of
laws into a book of moral precepts was the avowed
abandonment of doctrinal rigorism. On the other
hand, the halakists treated the agadists (and Chris
tians were agadists in their eyes) as frivolous people,
strangers to the onry serious study, which was that of
the Thora. Talmudism and Christianity became in
this way the two antipodes of the moral world, and
c
34 THE GOSPELS AND
the hatred between them grew from day to day. The
disgust which the subtle researches of the casuists
of Jabneh inspired in the minds of the Christians, is
written in the Gospels in letters of fire.
The inconvenience of the Talmudic studies was the
confidence which they gave and the disdain which
they inspired for the profane. " I thank Thee, O
Eternal God ! " said the student, on coming out of the
house of study, " for that by Thy grace I have fre
quented the school instead of doing as those do who
visit the market place. I rose up like them, but it
was for the study of the law, and not from frivolous
motives. I labour like them, but I shall be rewarded.
We both run, but I for life eternal, whilst they can
but fall into the pit of destruction." This it was
which wounded Jesus and the authors of the Gospels
so deeply ; this which inspired those beautiful sen
tences, " Judge not, that ye be not judged," those
parables wherein the man who is simple but pure of
heart is preferred to the haughty Pharisee. Like St
Paul, they saw in the casuists only people who sought
to damn the greater part of the world by exaggerating
obligations beyond the strength of man. Judaism,
having at its basis the fact which was taken for
granted that man is treated here below according to
his merits, set itself to judge without ceasing, since the
justice of God s ways could be proved only under that
condition. Pharisaism has its profoundest roots in the
theories of the friends of Job and of certain Psalmists.
Jesus, by postponing the application of the justice of
God to the future, rendered those criticisms of the con
duct of others futile. The Kingdom of Heaven would
set all things straight : God sleeps until then ; but
commit yourselves to him. Out of horror of hypo
crisy Christianity arrived at even the paradox of pre
ferring a world openly wicked but susceptible of
conversion to a bourgeoisie which made a parade of
its apparent honesty. Many features of the legend.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 35
conceived or developed under the influence of Jesus,
arose out of this idea.
Between people of the same race, partakers of the
same exile, admitting the same divine revelations and
differing only upon a single point of recent history, con
troversy was inevitable. Sufficiently numerous traces
of it are found in the Talmud and in the writings
connected with it. The most celebrated doctor whose
name appears mixed up in these disputes, is Rabbi
Tarphon. Before the siege of Jerusalem he had filled
various sacerdotal offices. He loved to recall his
memories of the Temple, particularly how he had
assisted upon the platform of the priests at the
solemn service of the Day of Atonement. The Pontiff
had for that day permission to pronounce the ineffable
name of the Most High. Tarphon tells how, notwith
standing his efforts, he was unable to hear it, the song
of the other officiants having drowned the priest s
voice.
After the destruction of the Holy City he was one
of the glories of the schools of Jabneh and Lydda. To
subtlety he joined what was better charity. In a
year of famine it is said that he married three hundred
women so that they might, thanks to their title . of
future spouses of a priest, have the right to share in
the sacred offerings. Naturally, the famine having
passed over, nothing more was heard of his espousals.
Many sentences of Tarphon recall the Gospel. " The
day is short, the work is long ; the workmen are idle,
the reward is great, the master urges on." " In . our
time," he adds, " when one says to another, Take the
straw out of thine eye, the answer is, Take the beam
out of thine own. " The Gospel places such a reply
in the mouth of Jesus reprimanding the Pharisees, and
one is tempted to believe that the ill temper of Rabbi
Tarphon came from a response of the same kind which
had been made to him by some min. The name of
Tarphon, in short, was celebrated in the Church. In
36 THE GOSPELS AND
the second century Justin, wishing in a dialogue to
depict a dispute between a Jew and a Christian, chose
our Doctor as the defender of the Jewish thesis, and
brought him upon the stage under the name of
Tryphon.
The choice of Justin and the malevolent tone in
which he makes this Tryphon speak of the Christian
faith, are justified by what we read in the Talmud of
the sentiments of Tarphon. This Rabbi knew the
Gospels and the books of the minim ; but, far from
admiring them, he wished them to be burned. It was
pointed out to him that the name of God constantly
appeared in them. " I would rather lose my son,"
said he, "than that he should not cast these books
into the fire, even though they contain the name of
God. A man pursued by a murderer, or threatened
with the bite of a serpent, had better seek shelter in
an idolatrous Temple than in one of the houses of the
minim, for these know the truth and deny it, whilst
idolaters deny God because they do not know him."
If a man relatively moderate like Tarphon could
allow himself to be so far carried away, we can imagine
how ardent and passionate must have been this hatred
in the world of the synagogues, where the fanaticism
of the Law was carried to its extremest limit. Ortho
dox Judaism could not curse the minim with sufficient
bitterness. The use of a triple malediction against
the partisans of Jesus comprised under the name of
Nazarenes was early established, it being said in the
synagogue at morning, at mid-day and at evening.
This malediction was introduced into the principal
prayer of Judaism, the amida or schemone-esre. The
amida is composed first, of eighteen benedictions, or
rather of eighteen paragraphs. About the time of
which we speak, an imprecation in these terms was
intercalated between the eleventh and twelfth para
graphs :
" For the treacherous, no hope ! For the malevolent destruc-
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 37
tion 1 Let tlie power of the proud be weakened, broken down,
crushed, humiliated, now in these our days. Praised be Thou,
O Eternal God ! who crushest thine enemies and bringest the
haughty to the dust."
It is supposed, not without a show of reason, that
the enemies of Israel pointed at in this prayer were
originally the Judeo-Christians, and that this was a
sort of shibboleth to turn the partisans of Jesus out of
the synagogues. Conversions of Jews to Christianity
were not rare in Syria. The fidelity of the Christians
of this country to Mosaic observances afforded great
facilities for this kind of thing. Whilst the uncircum-
cised disciples of St Paul could have no relations with
a Jew, the Judeo-Christian might enter the synagogues,
approach the tkba and the reading-desk where the
officials and the preachers presided, and might select
the texts which favoured their views. In this way
great precautions were taken. . The most efficacious,
was to compel everyone who wished to pray in the
synagogue to recite a prayer which, pronounced by a
Christian, would have been a curse upon himself.
To sum up notwithstanding its appearance of
narrowness, this Nazareo-Ebionite Church of Batanea
had something mystical and holy about it which is
exceedingly striking. The simplicity of the Jewish
conceptions of the Divinity preserved it from myth
ology and from metaphysics, into which Western
Christendom was not slow to plunge. Its persistence
in maintaining the sublime paradox of Jesus, the
nobility and the happiness of poverty was touching in
its way. There, perhaps, lay the great truth of Chris
tianity, that by which it has succeeded and by which
it will survive. In one sense all of us, such as we
are students, artists, priests, doers of disinterested
deeds have the right to call ourselves Ebionim. The
friend of the true, the beautiful, and the good, never
admits that he calls for a reward. The things of the
soul are beyond price ; to the student who illuminate?
38 THE GOSPELS AND
them, to the priest who moralises on them, to the poet
and the artist who shed a charm over them, humanity
will never give more than alms alms wholly out of
proportion to what she has received. He who sells
the ideal and believes himself paid for what he delivers,
is very humble. The proud Ebionite who thinks that
the kingdom of Heaven is his, sees that the part
which falls to his lot here below is not a salary but
the obolus which is dropped into the hand of a
beggar.
The Nazarenes of Batanea had thus an inestimable
privilege. They held the veritable tradition of the
words of Jesus ; the Gospel came forth from their
midst. Thus those who knew directly the Church
beyond the Jordan, such as Hegisippus and Julius
Africanus, spoke of it with the greatest admiration.
There, principally, it appeared to them, was the true
ideal of Christianity, to be found ; in that Church
hidden in the desert, in a profound peace under the
wing of God, it appeared to them like a virgin of an
absolute purity. The bonds of these scattered com
munities with Catholicism were broken little by little.
Justin hesitates on their account, he knows little of
the Judeo-Christian Church ; but he knows that it
exists, he speaks of it with consideration ; at all events
he does not break away from communion with it. It
is Irenaeus who begins the series of these declamations,
repeated after him by all the Greek and Latin Fathers,
and upon which St Epiphanius puts the topstone by
the species of rage which the very names of Nazarenc
and Ebionite excite in him. It is a law of this world
that every originator, every founder, shall speedily
become a stranger, then one excommunicated, then an
enemy in his own school, and that if he obstinately
persists in living, those who go out from him are
obliged to take measures against him as against a
dangerous man.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 39
CHAPTER V.
SETTLEMENT OF THE LEGEND AND OF THE
TEACHINGS OF JESUS.
WHEN a great apparition of the religious, moral, and
literary order is produced, the next generation usually
feels the necessity of fixing the memory of the re
markable things which happened at the commence
ment of the new movement. Those who took part in
the first hatching, those who have known according
to the flesh, the master whom so many others have
been able to adore in the spirit only, have a sort of
aversion for the writings which diminish their privilege
and appear to deliver to all the world a holy tradi
tion which they keep secretly guarded in their hearts.
It is when the last witnesses of the beginning threaten
to disappear, that disquietude as to the future sets in,
and that attempts are made to trace the image of the
founder in durable tints. One circumstance in the
case of Jesus, contributed to delay the period when
the memoirs of disciples are usually written down,
and that was the belief in the approaching end of the
world, the assurance that the Apostolic generation
would not pass away until the gentle Nazarene had
returned as the Eternal Shepherd of his friends.
It has been remarked a thousand times, that the
strength of man s memory is in inverse proportion
to the habit of writing. We can scarcely imagine
what oral tradition might retain, when people did not
resort to notes which had been taken or to papers
which they possessed. The memory of a man was
then as a book ; he knew how to report conversation,
to which he himself had not listened. " The Clamo-
zenians had heard tell of one Antiphon, who was
connected with a certain Pythadorus, friend of Zeno,
who remembered the conversations of Socrates with
40 THE GOSPELS AND
Zeno and Parmenides, in order to repeat them to
Pythadorus. Antiphon knew them by heart, and
would repeat them to whomsoever would hear them."
Such is the opening of the Parmenides of Plato. A
host of people who had never seen Jesus, knew him
in this way, without the help of any book, almost as
well as his disciples themselves. The life of Jesus,
although not written, was the food of the Church ;
his maxims were incessantly repeated ; the essentially
symbolical parts of his biography were reproduced in
the little recitals, in some sort stereotyped and known
by heart. This is certain as regards the institution of
the Supper. It was probably also the same as regards
the essential lines of the story of the Passion ; at all
events, the agreement of the fourth Gospel with the
three others on that essential part of the Life of Jesus,
would lead one to suppose so.
The moral sentences which formed the most solid
part of the teaching of Jesus were still more easy to
retain. They were assiduously recited. "Towards
midnight I always awake," Peter is made to say in an
Ebionite writing, composed about the year 135, " and
then sleep returns to me no more. It is the effect of
the habit which I have contracted of recalling to
memory the words of my Lord which I have heard, so
that I may retain them faithfully." As, however,
those who had directly received the divine words were
dying day by day, and as many words and anecdotes
seemed likely to be lost, the necessity for writing
them down made itself felt. On various sides little
collections were made. These collections presented,
with much in common, strange variants ; the order
and arrangement especially differed ; each author
sought to make his copy complete by consulting the
papers of others, and naturally every vigorously
accentuated word took its origin in the community,
provided it conformed to the spirit of Jesus, was
greedily seized upon, and inserted in the collec-
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 41
tions. According to certain appearances, the Apostle
Matthew composed one of these memoirs, which has
generally been accepted. Doubt is permissible in this
matter, however; it is much more probable that all
these little collections of the words of Jesus were
anonymous, in the condition of personal notes, and
were only reproduced by copyists as works possessing
an individuality.
One writing which may assist us to form an idea of
this first Embryo of the Gospels is the Pirke Aboth, a
collection of the sentences of celebrated Rabbis, from
the Asmonean times to the second century of our era.
Such a book could be formed only by successive
accretions. The progress of the Buddhist writings on
the life of Saka-Mouni followed a similar course. The
Buddhist Sutras corresponded to the collections of the
words of Jesus ; they are not biographies ; they begin
simply by indications of this kind : " At this time
Bhagavat sojourned at Sravasti in the Vihara of
Jetavana," etc. The narrative part is very limited;
the teaching, the parable, is the principal object.
Entire parts of Buddhism only possess such Sutras.
The Buddhism of the North, and the branches
which have issued from it, have more books like the
Lalita Vistara, complete biographies of Saka-Mouni,
from his birth to the moment of his attaining to per
fect intelligence. The Buddhism of the South has no
such biographies, not that it ignores them, but because
its theological teaching has been able to pass them by,
and to hold to the Sutras.
We shall see, in speaking of the Gospel according to
Matthew, that the state of these Christian Sutras
may readily be imagined. They were a species of
pamphlets, of sentences and parables without much
order, which the editor of our Matthew inserted into
his narrative. The Hebrew genius had always ex
celled in moral sentences ; in the mouth of Jesus that
exquisite style attained perfection. Nothing prevents
42 THE GOSPELS AND
our believing that Jesus himself spoke in this way-
But the " hedge " which according to the expression
of the Talmud, protected the sacred word, was very
weak. It is of the essence of such collections to grow
by a slow accretion, without the outline of the first
stone being ever lost. Thus the treatise Eduwth, a little
Mishna complete, which is the kernel of the great
Mishna, and in which the deposits of successive crystal
lisations of tradition are very visible, is to be found
complete in the great Mishna. The Sermon on the
Mount may be considered as the Eduwth of the
Gospel, that is to say, as a first artificial grouping
which does not prevent later combinations or the
maxims thus strung together by a slender thread from
shelling off anew.
In what language were those little collections of the
sentences of Jesus composed, these Pirke leschou, if
such an expression may be permitted ? In the
language of Jesus himself, in the vulgar tongue of
Palestine a sort of mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic
which was still called Hebrew, and to which modern
savants have given the name of Syro - Chaldaic,
Upon this point the Pirke Aboth is perhaps still the
book which gives us the best idea of the primitive
Gospels, although the Rabbis who figure in this
collection, being doctors of the pure Jewish school,
speak there a language which is perhaps nearer to
Hebrew than was that of Jesus. Naturally the
catechists who spoke Greek translated those words as
best they could, and in a fashion sufficiently free. It
is this that is called the Logia Kyriaca, " the oracles
of the Lord," or simply the Logia. The Syro-Chaldaic
collections of the sentences of Jesus having never had
unity, the Greek collections have even less, and were
only written down individually in the manner of notes
for the personal use of each one. It was impossible
that even in a. sketchy fashion Jesns was entirely con
tained in a gnomic writing ; the entire Gospel coulJ
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 43
not be confined within the narrow limits of a little
treatise of morals. A choice of current proverbs or
of precepts like the Pirke Aboth would not have
changed humanity, even supposing it to have been
filled with maxims of the most exalted character.
That which characterises Jesus in the highest degree
is that with him teaching was inseparable from action.
His lessons were acts, living symbols, bound indis-
solubly to his parables, and certainly in the most
ancient pages which were written to fix his teachings,
there are already anecdotes and short narratives.
Very soon, however, the first framework became
totally insufficient. The sentences of Jesus were
nothing without his biography. That biography is
the mystery par excellence, the realisation of the
Messianic ideal ; the texts of the prophets there find
their justification. To relate the life of Jesus is to
prove his Messiahship, is to make, in the eyes of
the Jews, the most complete apology for the new
movement.
Thus very early arose a framework which was in
some sort the skeleton of all the Gospels, and in which
word and action were mingled. In the beginning
John the Baptist, forerunner of the Kingdom of God,
announcing, welcoming, recommending Jesus ; then
Jesus preparing himself for his Divine mission by
retirement and the fulfilling of the Law ; then the
brilliant period of his public life, the full sunshine of
the Kingdom of God Jesus in the midst of his
disciples beaming with the gentle and tempered
radiance of a prophet-son of God. As the disciples
had scarcely any save Galilean reminiscences, Galilee
was the almost exclusive stage of this exquisite theo-
phany. The part of Jerusalem was almost suppressed.
Jesus went there only eight days before his death.
His two last days were told almost hour by hour. On
the eve of his death he kept the Passover with his
disciples and instituted the Divine rite of common
44 THE GOSPELS ANt)
communion. One of his disciples betrayed him ; the
official authorities of Judaism obtained his death from
the Roman authority ; he died upon Golgotha, he was
buried. On the next day but one his tomb was found
empty ; it was because he had been resuscitated and
had ascended to the right hand of the Father. Many
disciples were then favoured with appearances of his
shade wandering between heaven and earth.
The beginning and the end of the history were, as
we see, sufficiently well defined. The interval, on the
contrary, was in a state of anecdotic chaos without
any chronology. For the whole of this part relative
to the public life no order was consecrated ; each
distributed his matter in his own way. Altogether
the compilation became what was called " the good
news," in Hebrew Besora, in Greek Evangelion, in
allusion to the passage of the second Isaiah : " The
spirit of Jehovah is upon me, because Jehovah hath
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek;
he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of
the prison to them that are bound ; to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance
of our God; to comfort all that mourn." The Mebasser
or " Evangelist " had as his especial duty to expound
this excellent history which has been for eighteen
hundred years the great instrument for the con
version of the world, which yet remains the great
argument for Christianity in the struggle of the last
days.
The matter was traditional : now tradition is in its
essence a ductile and extensible matter. Every year
sayings more or less apocryphal were mixed with the
authentic words of Jesus. Did a new fact, a new
tendency, make its appearance in the community, the
question was asked what Jesus would have thought
of it ; and there was no difficulty in attributing it to
the Master. The collection, in this way, grew from
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 45
day to day, and was also purified. Words which were
too strongly opposed to the opinions of the moment,
or which had been found dangerous, were eliminated.
But the basis remained; the foundation was really
solid. The evangelical tradition is the tradition of the
Church at Jerusalem transported into Perea. The
Gospel was born amongst the family of Jesus, and,
up to a certain point, is the work of his immediate
disciples.
This fact it is which gives us the right to believe
that the image of Jesus, as portrayed in the Gospels,
resembles the original in all essential particulars.
These narratives are at once historical and figurative.
Whatever of fable may have mixed itself with them,
it would be erring, out of fear of erring, to conclude
that nothing in the Gospels is true. If we had known
St Francis of Assisi only by the book of the " Con
formities," we should have to say that it was a bio
graphy like that of Buddha or of Jesus, a biography
written a priori to exhibit the realisation of a pre
conceived type. Still, Francis of Assisi certainly
existed. Ali has become an altogether mythical per
sonage amongst the Shieks. His sons, Hassan and
Hosein, have been substituted for the fabulous part
of Thammuz. Yet, Ali Hassan and Hosein are real
personages. The myth is frequently grafted upon a
historical biography. The ideal is sometimes the true.
Athens offers the absolutely beautiful in the arts, and
Athens exists. Even the personages who may some
times be taken for symbolical statues, have really at
certain times lived in flesh and bone. These histories
follow, in fact, certain orderly patterns so closely that
there is a certain resemblance amongst all of them.
Babism, which is a fact of our days, offers, in its
nascent legend, parts that seem drawn from the Life
of Jesus ; the type of the disciple who denies ; the
details of the sufferings and the death of Bab, appear
to be imitated from the Gospel, which does not imply
46 THE GOSPELS AND
that these facts did not happen as they are "described
to have done.
We may add that by the side of these ideal traits,
which make up the figure of the hero of the Gospels,
there are also characteristics of the time, of the race,
and of individual character. This young Jew, at once
gentle and terrible, subtle and imperious, childlike
and sublime, filled with a disinterested zeal, with a
pure morality, and with the ardour of an exalted per
sonality, most certainly existed. He should have his
place in one of Bida s pictures, the face encircled with
long locks of hair. He was a Jew, and he was himself.
The loss of his supernatural aureole has deprived him
in no way of his charm. Our race restored to itself
and disengaged from all that Jewish influences have
introduced into its manner of thought, will continue
to love him.
Assuredly in writing concerning such lives, one is
perpetually compelled to say, with Quintus Curtius.
Equidem plura transcribo quam credo. On the
other hand, by an excess cf scepticism, one is deprived
of many great truths. For our clear and scholastic
minds, the distinction between a real and a fictitious
history is absolute. The epic poem, the heroic
narrative, or the Homerides, the troubadours, the
antari, the cantistorie, exhibit themselves with so
much ease, are reduced in the poetic of a Lucan or of
a Voltaire to the cold puppets of stage machines which
deceive nobody. For the success of such narratives,
the auditor must accept them ; but it is necessary
that the author should believe them possible. The
legendary, the Agadist, are no more impostors than
the authors of the Homeric poems, or than were the
Christians of Troyes. One of the essential disposi
tions of those who create the really fertile fables, is
their complete carelessness with regard to material
truth. The Agadist would smile if we put a question
with all sincerity, "Is what you tell us true?" In
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 47
such a state of mind no one is uneasy save about
the doctrine to be inculcated, the sentiment to
be expressed. The spirit is everything ; the letter
is of no importance. Objective curiosity which
proposes to itself no other end than to know as
exactly as possible the reality of the facts, is a
thing of which there is almost no example in the
East.
Just as the life of a Buddha in India was in some
sense written in advance, so the life of a Jewish
Messiah was traced d, priori ; it was easy to say what
it would be and what it ought to be. His type was
as it were sculptured by the prophets, thanks to the
exegesis which applied to the Messiah all that belonged
to an obscure ideal. Most frequently, however, it was
the inverse process which prevailed amongst the
Christians. In reading the prophets, especially the
prophets of the end of the captivity, the second Isaiah,
Jeremiah and Zechariah, they found Jesus in every
line. " Rejoice greatly, daughter of Sion ; shout, O
daughter of Jerusalem ; behold thy King cometh unto
thee, he is just and having salvation, lowly and riding
upon an ass and a colt the foal of an ass " (Zech. ix. 9).
The King of the poor was Jesus, and the circumstance
which they recalled was regarded as the fulfilment
of that prophecy. " The stone which the builders
rejected has become the head of the corner," they read
in a psalm. " He shall be a stone of stumbling and a
rock of offence," they read in Isaiah, " to both the
houses of Israel, a gin and a snare to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble
and fall" (Isaiah viii. 14, 15). "There indeed it is!"
they said. Above all things, they went ardently over
the circumstances of the Passion to find figures. All
that passed hour by hour in that terrible drama hap
pened in order to fulfil some prediction, to signify some
mystery. It was remembered that he had refused to
drink the posca, that his bones had not been broken,
48 THE GOSPELS AND
that the soldiers had drawn lots for his garments.
The prophets had predicted all. Judas and his pieces
of silver (true or supposed) suggested analogous com
parisons. All the old history of the people of God
became as it were a model which they copied. Moses
and Elias, with their luminous apparitions, gave rise to
imaginary ascents to glory. All the ancient Theo-
phanies took place on high ground. Jesus revealed
himself principally on the mountains ; he was trans
figured on Tabor. They were not dismayed by apparent
contradictions. "Out of Egypt have I called My
Son," said Jehovah in Hosea. The words, of course,
applied to Israel, but the Christian imagination applied
them to Jesus, and made his parents carry him when
a child into Egypt. By a yet more strained exegesis
they discovered that his birth in Nazareth was the
fulfilment of a prophecy.
The whole tissue of the life of Jesus was thus an
express fact, a sort of superhuman arrangement in
tended to realise a series of ancient texts reputed to
relate to him. It is a kind of exegesis which the
Jews call Midrasch, into which all equivoques, all
plays upon words, letters, sense, are admitted. The
old biblical texts were for the Jews of this time not
as for us an historical and literary whole but a book
of gramarye whence were drawn fates, images, induc
tions of every description. The sense proper for such
an exegesis did not exist ; the chimeras of the cabbalist
were already approached ; the sacred text was treated
simply as an agglomeration of letters. It is unneces
sary to say that all this work was done in an impersonal
and in some sense an anonymous fashion. Legends,
myths, popular songs, proverbs, historical words, calum
nies characteristic of a party all this is the work of
that great impostor who is called the crowd. Assuredly
every legend, every proverb, every spiritual word, has
its father, but an unknown father. Someone says the
word ; thousands repeat it, perfect it, refine it, acumi-
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 49
nate it ; even he who first spoke it has been in saying
it only the interpreter of all.
CHAPTER VI.
THE HEBREW GOSPEL.
THIS exposition of the Messianic life of Jesus, mixed
up with texts of the old prophets, always the same,
and capable of being recited in a single sitting, was
early settled in almost invariable terms, at least so far
as the sense is concerned. Not merely did the narra
tive unfold itself according to a predetermined plan,
but the characteristic words were settled so that the
word often guided the thought and survived the
modifications of the text. The framework of the
Gospel thus existed even before the Gospel itself,
almost in the same way as in the Persian dramas of
the death of the sons of Ali the order of the action is
settled, whilst the dialogue is left to be improvised by
the actors. Designed for preaching, for apology, for
the conversion of the Jews, the Gospel story found all
its individuality before it was written. Had the Gali
lean disciples, the brothers of the Lord, been consulted
as to the necessity for having the sheets containing
this narrative worked into a consecrated form, they
would have laughed. What necessity is there for a
paper to contain our fundamental thoughts, those
which we repeat and apply every day ? The young
catechists might avail themselves, for some time, of
such aids to memory ; the old masters felt only con
tempt for those who used them.
Thus it was that until the middle of the second
century the words of Jesus continued to be cited from
D
50 THE GOSPELS AND
memory often with considerable variations. The texts
of the evangelists which we possess, existed; but
other texts of the same kind existed by the side of
them ; and, besides, to quote the words or the symboli
cal features of the life of Jesus no one felt obliged to
have recourse to the written text. The living tradi
tion was the great well from which all alike drew.
Hence the explanation of the fact which is in appear
ance surprising, that the texts which have become the
most important part of Christianity were produced
obscurely, confusedly, and at first were not received
with any consideration.
The same phenomenon makes its appearance further
more in almost all sacred literatures. The Vedas have
been handed down for centuries without having been
written ; a man who respected himself ought to know
them by heart. He who had need of a manuscript to
recite these ancient hymns confessed his ignorance;
so that the copies have never been held in much
esteem. To quote from memory from the Bible, the
Koran, is, even in our days, a point of honour amongst
Orientals. A part of the Jewish Thora must have
been oral before it was written down. It was the
same with the Psalms. The Talmud, finally, existed
for two hundred years before it was written down.
Even after it was written, scholars long preferred the
traditional discourses to the MSS. which contained
the opinions of the doctors. The glory of the scholar
was to be able to cite from memory the greatest pos
sible number of the solutions of the casuists. In
presence of these facts, far from being astonished at
the contempt of Papias for the Gospel texts existing
in his time, amongst which were certainly two of the
books which Christianity has since so deeply revered,
we find his contempt in perfect harmony with what
might be expected from a " man of tradition," an
elder," as those who had spoken of him have called
him.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 51
It may be doubted whether before the death of
the Apostles, and the destruction of Jerusalem, all
that collection of narratives, sentences, parables, and
prophetic citations had been reduced to writing. The
features of the divine figure before which eighteen
centuries of Christians have prostrated themselves,
were first sketched about the year 75. Batanea,
where the brothers of Jesus lived, and where the
remnant of the Church of Jerusalem had taken refuge,
appears to have been the country where this import
ant work was executed. The tongue employed was
that in which the very words of Jesus had been
uttered, that is to say, Syro-Chaldaic, which was
abusively called Hebrew. The brothers of Jesus, the
fugitive Christians of Jerusalem, spoke that language,
little different besides from that of the Bataneans, who
had not adopted the Greek tongue. It was in an
obscure dialect, and without literary culture, that the
first draft of the book which has charmed so many
souls was traced. It was in Greek that the Gospel
was to attain its perfection, the last form which has
made the tour of the world. It must not, however,
be forgotten that the Gospel was first a Syrian book,
written in a Semitic language. The style of the
Gospel that charming turn of childlike narrative
which recalls the most limpid pages of the old Hebrew
books penetrated with a species of idealistic ether
that the ancient people did not know, and which has
nothing of Greek in it. Hebrew is its basis. A just
proportion of materialism and spirituality, or rather
an indiscernible confusion of soul and sense, makes
that adorable language the very synonym of poetry,
the pure vestment of the moral idea, something analo
gous to Greek sculpture, where the ideal allows itself
to be touched and loved.
Thus was sketched out by an unconscious genius
that masterpiece of spontaneous art, the Gospel, not
such and such a gospel, but this species of unfixed
52 THE GOSPELS AND
poem, this unrevised masterpiece where every defect
is a beauty, and the indefiniteness of which has been
the chief cause of its success. A portrait of Jesus,
finished, revised, classic, would not have had so great
a charm. The Agada, the parable, do not require hard
outlines. They require the floating chronology, the
light transition, careless of reality. It is by the
Gospel that the Jewish agada has been universally
accepted. The air of candour is fascinating. He
who knows how to tell a tale can catch the crowd.
Now, to know how to tell stories is a rare privilege ; a
naivete, an absence of pedantry of which a solemn
doctor is hardly capable, are absolutely necessary.
The Buddhists and the Jewish Agadists (the evangelists
are true Agadists) have alone possessed this art in the
degree of perfection which makes the entire universe
accept a story. All the stories, all the parables which
are repeated from one end of the world to the other,
have but two origins, one Buddhist and the other
Christian, because Buddhists and the founders of
Christianity alone had the care of the popular preach
ing. The situation of the Buddhists with regard to
the Brahmans was in a sense analogous to that of the
Agadists with regard to the Talmudists. The latter
have nothing which resembles the Gospel parable, any
more than the Brahmans would have arrived by
themselves at a turn so light, so agile, and so flowing
as the Buddhist narrative. Two great lives well told,
that of Buddha and that of Jesus there lies the
secret of the two vastest religious propaganda that
humanity has ever seen.
The Halaka has converted no one ; the Epistles of
St Paul alone would not have won a hundred disciples
to Jesus. That which has conquered the hearts of man
is the Gospel, that delicious mixture of poetry and the
moral sense, that narrative floating between dreams
and reality in a Paradise where no note is taken of
time. In all that there is assuredly a little literary
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 53
surprise. The success of the Gospel was due on the
one hand to the astonishment caused amongst our
heavy races by the delicious strangeness of the Semitic
narrative, by the skilful arrangement of these sentences
and discourses, by these cadences, so happy, so serene,
so balanced. Strangers to the artifices of the agada,
our good ancestors were so charmed with them that
even in the present day we can scarcely persuade our
selves that this species of narrative may be devoid of
objective truth. But to explain how it has happened
that the Gospel may have become amongst all nations
what it is, the old family book whose worn pages have
been moistened with tears, and on which the finger of
generations has been impressed, more is required. The
literary success of the Gospel is due to Jesus himself.
Jesus was, if we may so express ourselves, the author
of his own biography. One experience proves the
fact. There have been many Lives of Jesus in the
past. Now the life of Jesus will always obtain a great
success when the writer has the necessary degree of
ability, of boldness, and of naivete to translate the
Gospel into the style of his time. A thousand reasons
for this success may be looked for, but there is never
more than one, and that is the incomparable intrinsic
beauty of the Gospel itself. When the same writer
later on attempts a translation of St Paul, the public
will not be attracted. So true it is that the eminent
person of Jesus trenching vigorously on the mediocrity
of his disciples was pre-eminently the soul of the new
apparition, and gave to it all its originality.
The Hebrew Protavangel was preserved in the
original amongst the Nazarenes of Syria until the
fifth century. There are besides Greek translations of
it. A specimen was found in the library of the
priest Pamphilus of Csesarea ; St Jerome is said to have
copied the Hebrew text at Aleppo, and even to have
translated it. All the Fathers of the Church have
found that this Hebrew Gospel is much like the Greek
54 THE GOSPELS AND
Gospel which bears the name of St Matthew. They
usually assume that the Greek Gospel attributed to
St Matthew was translated from the Hebrew, but the
deduction is erroneous. The generation of our Gospel
of St Matthew was a much more complicated matter.
The resemblance of the Gospel with the Gospel of the
Hebrews does not go so far as identity. Our St
Matthew is anything but a translation. We will ex
plain later on why of all the Gospel texts the latter
approaches most nearly to the Hebrew prototype.
The obstruction of the Judeo- Christians of Syria
brought about the disappearance of the Hebrew text.
The Greek and Latin translations, which created a
disagreeable discord by the side of the canonical
Gospels, also perished. The numerous quotations
made from it by the Fathers, allow us to imagine the
original up to a certain point. The Fathers had
reason to connect it with the first of our Gospels.
This Gospel of the Hebrews, of the Nazarenes, re
sembled in truth much of that which bears the name
of Matthew, both in plan and in arrangement. As to
length, it holds the middle place between Mark and
Matthew. It is impossible sufficiently to regret the
loss of such a text, though it is certain that even
supposing we still possessed the Gospel of the Hebrews
seen by St Jerome, our Matthew would be preferred to
it. Our Matthew, in a word, has been preserved intact
since its final revision in the last years of the first
century, whilst the Gospel of the Hebrews, through
the absonce of an orthodoxy (the jealous guardian of
the text) amongst the Judaising Churches of Syria,
has been revised from century to century, so that at
the last it was no better than one of the apocryphal
Gospels.
In its origin it appears to have possessed the char
acteristics which one expects to find in a primitive
work. The plan of the narrative was like that of
Mark, simpler than that of Matthew and Luke. The
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 55
virginal birth of Jesus does not figure in it at all. The
struggle about the genealogies was lively, and the
great battle of Ebionism took place on this point.
Some admitted the genealogical tables into their
copies, while others rejected them. Compared with
the Gospel which bears the name of Matthew, the
Gospel of the Hebrews, so far as we can judge by the
fragments which remain to us, was less refined in its
symbolism, more logical, less subject to certain objec
tions of exegesis, but of a stranger, coarser super-
naturalism, more like that of Mark. Thus the fable
that the Jordan took fire at the Baptism of Jesus
a fable dear to popular tradition in the earlier ages of
the Church is to be found there. The form under
which it was supposed that the Holy Spirit entered
into Jesus at that moment, as a force wholly distinct
from himself, appears also to have been the oldest
Nazarene conception. For the transfiguration, the
Spirit, which was the Mother of Jesus, takes her Son
by a hair, according to an imagination of Ezekiel
(Ezek. viii. 3), and in the additions to the book of
Daniel, and transports him to Mount Tabor. Some
material details are shocking, but are altogether in
the style of Mark. Finally some features which had
remained sporadic in the Greek tradition, such as the
anecdote of the woman taken in adultery, which is
thrust rightly or wrongly into the fourth Gospel, had
their place in the Gospel of the Hebrews.
The stories of the appearances of Jesus after his
resurrection, presented evidently in that Gospel a
character apart. Whilst the Galilean tradition repre
sented by Matthew will have it that Jesus appointed
a meeting with his disciples in Galilee, the Gospel of
the Hebrews without doubt because it represented the
tradition of the Church of Jerusalem supposed that
all the appearances took place in that city, and attri
buted the first vision to James. The endings of the
Gospels of St Mark and St Luke place, in the same
56 THE GOSPELS AND
way, all the apparitions at Jerusalem. St Paul fol
lowed an analogous tradition.
One very remarkable fact is that James, the man of
Jerusalem, played in the Gospel of the Hebrews a
more important part than in the evangelical tradi
tion which has survived. It appears that there was
amongst the Greek evangelists a sort of agreement to
efface the brother of Jesus, or even to allow it to be
supposed that he played an odious part. In the
Nazarene Gospel, on the contrary, James is honoured
with an appearance of Jesus after his resurrection;
that apparition is the first of all ; it is for him alone ;
it is the reward of the vow, full of lively faith, that
James had made, that he would neither eat nor drink
until he had seen his brother raised from the dead.
We might be tempted to regard this narrative as a
sufficiently modern resetting of the legend, without a
single important circumstance. St Paul in the year 57
also tells us that, according to the tradition which he
had received, James had had his vision. Here, then,
is an important fact which the Greek evangelists sup
pressed, and which the Gospel of the Hebrews related.
On the other hand, it appears that the first Hebrew
edition embodies more than one hostile allusion to
Paul. People have prophesied, and cast out devils in
the name of Jesus : Jesus openly repulses them be
cause they have "practised illegality." The parable
of the tares is still more characteristic. A man has
sown in his field only good seed ; but whilst he slept
an enemy came, sowed tares in the field, and departed.
" Master," said the servants, " didst thou not sow good
seed in thy field ? from whence then hath it tares ? "
And he said unto them, " An enemy hath done this."
The servants said unto him, "Wilt thou that we go
and gather them up ? " But he said unto them, " Nay,
lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the
wheat with them. Let both grow together until the
harvest, and in the time of harvest 1 will say to the
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 57
reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind
them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat
into my barn." It must be remembered that the
expression " the enemy " was the name habitually
given by the Ebionites to Paul.
Was the Gospel of the Hebrews considered by the
Christians of Syria, who made use of it, as the work
of the Apostle Matthew ? There is no valid reason
for such a belief. The witness of the fathers of the
Church proves nothing about the matter. Consider
ing the extreme inexactitude of the ecclesiastical
writers, when Hebrew affairs are in question, this
perfectly accurate proposition, "The Gospel of the
Hebrews of the Syrian Christians resembles the
Greek Gospel known by the name of St Matthew,"
transforms itself into this, with which it is by no
means synonymous : " The Christians of Syria pos
sessed the Gospel of St Matthew in Hebrew," or
rather, " St Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew."
We believe that the name of St Matthew was not
applied to one of the versions of the Gospel until the
Greek version which now bears .his name was com
posed, which will be much later. If the Hebrew
Gospel never bore an author s name, or rather a
title of traditional guarantee, it was the title of
" the Gospel of the Twelve Apostles," sometimes also
that of "the Gospel of Peter." Still, we believe
that these names were given . later, when Gospels
bearing the names of the Apostles came into use.
A decisive method of preserving to the original
Gospel its high authority, was to cover it with the
authority of the entire Apostolic College.
As we have already said, the Gospel of the Hebrews
was ill preserved. Every Judaising sect of Syria
added to it, and suppressed parts of it, so that the
orthodox sometimes presented it as swollen by in
terpolation to a greater size than St Matthew, and
sometimes as mutilated. It was especially in the
58 THE GOSPELS AND
hands of the Ebionites of the second century that the
Gospel of the Hebrews arrived at the lowest point of
corruption. These heretics issued a Greek version
the style of which appears to have been awkward,
heavy, overloaded, and in which, moreover, the writer
did not fail to imitate Luke and the other Greek
evangelists. The so-called Gospels of Peter and of
the Egyptians came from the same source, and pre
sented equally an apocryphal character and a medi
ocre standard.
CHAPTER VII.
THE GREEK GOSPEL MARK.
THE Christianity of the Greek countries had still
greater need than those of Syria for a written version
of the life and teaching of Jesus. It appears at the
first glance that it would have been very simple, for
the satisfaction of that demand, to translate the
Hebrew Gospel, which shortly after the fall of Jeru
salem had taken a definite form. But translation
pure and simple was not the fashion of those times :
no text had sufficient authority to cause it to be
preferred over others ; it is, moreover, doubtful if
the little Hebrew pamphlets of the Nazarenes could
have passed the sea and gone out of Syria. The
Apostolic men who were in communication with the
Western Churches trusted to their memories, and
without doubt did not carry with them works which
would have been unintelligible to the faithful. When
the necessity for a Gospel in Greek made itself felt,
it was composed of fragments. But, as we have
already said, the plan, the skeleton, the book almost
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 59
in its entirety, were sketched out in advance. There
was at bottom but one way of telling the life of Jesus,
and two disciples, working separately, one at Rome,
the other at Kokaba, the one in Greek, the other in
Syro-Chaldaic, could not but produce two works
very much like each other.
The general lines, the order of the narrative, had
already been settled. What had to be created were
the Greek style and the choice of the necessary words.
The man who accomplished this important work was
John - Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter.
Mark, it appears, had seen when a child something of
the facts of the Gospel ; it may even be believed that
he was at Gethsemane. He had personally known
those who had played a part in the drama of the last
days of Jesus. Having accompanied Peter to Rome,
he probably remained there after the death of the
Apostle, and passed through the terrible crisis which
followed the event in that town. It was there that,
according to all appearances, he put together the little
book of forty or fifty pages which was the corner
stone of the Greek Gospels.
The document, although composed after the death
of Peter, was in a sense his work ; it was the way in
which he had been accustomed to relate the life of
Jesus. Peter knew scarcely any Greek ; Mark served
him as dragoman ; hundreds of times he had been the
channel through which this marvellous history had
passed. Peter did not follow a very rigid order in his
preaching ; he cited facts and parables as the exigencies
of his teaching required. This licence of composition is
also found in the book of Mark. The distribution of
the subject is often logically at fault ; in some respects
the work is very incomplete, since entire parts of the
Life of Jesus are wanting, of which complaint was made
even in the second century. On the other hand, the
clearness, the precision of detail, the originality, the
picturesqueness, the life of this first narrative were
60 THE GOSPELS AND
not afterwards equalled. A sort of realism renders
the form heavy and hard ; the ideality of the character
of Jesus suffers from it ; there are incoherencies, in
explicable whimsicalities. The first and the third
Gospels greatly surpass that of Mark in the beauty of
the discourses, the happy application of the anecdotes ;
a crowd of touching details have disappeared, but as
an historical document the Gospel of Mark is greatly
superior. The strong impression left by Jesus is
there found almost entire. We see him really living
and acting.
The part which Mark took in so singularly abridg
ing the great discourses of Jesus is astonishing. These
discourses could not have been unknown to him : if
he has omitted them, he must have had some motive
for doing so. The somewhat narrow and dry spirit
of Peter is perhaps the cause of this suppression.
This spirit is certainly also the explanation of the
puerile importance which Mark attaches to the
miracles. The working of wonders in his Gospel has
a singular character of heavy materialism, which for
the moment recalls the reveries of the magnetizers.
The miracles are painfully accomplished by successive
steps. Jesus works them by means of Aramaic
formulae, which have a Cabbalistic air. There is a
struggle between the natural and supernatural forces :
the evil yields only step by step, and under reiterated
injunctions. Add to this a sort of secret character,
Jesus always forbidding those who are the recipients
of his favours to speak of them, It is not to be
denied that Jesus comes out of this Gospel not as the
delightful moralist whom we love, but as a terrible
magician. The sentiment with which he inspires the
majority of those about him is fear ; the people, terri
fied by his miracles, pray him to depart out of their
coasts.
It is not to be concluded from this that the Gospel
of Mark is less historic than the others; quite the
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 6l
contrary. Tilings which offend us in the highest
degree were of the first importance to Jesus and his
immediate disciples. The Roman world was even
more than the Jewish world the dupe of these
illusions. The miracles of Vespasian are conceived on
exactly the same lines as those of Jesus in the Gospel
of Mark. A blind man, a lame man, stop him on the
public road, and beg him to cure them. He cures
the first by spitting on his eyes ; the second by tread
ing upon his leg. Peter appears to have been princi
pally struck by these prodigies, and we may readily
believe that he insisted much upon them in his preach
ing. Hence the work which he inspired has a
physiognomy peculiar to itself. The Gospel of Mark is
less a legend than a memoir written by a credulous per
son. The characters of the legend, the vagueness of
the details, the softness of the outlines, strike one in
Matthew and Luke. Here, on the contrary, everything
is taken from life ; we feel that we are in the presence
of memories.
The spirit which rules in this little book is certainly
that of Peter. In the first place, Cephas plays there
an eminent part, and appears always at the head of
the apostles. The author is in no way of the school of
Paul, yet in various ways he approaches him much
more nearly than in the direction of James by his
indifference with regard to Judaism, his hatred for
Pharisaism, his lively opposition to the principles of
the Jewish theocracy. The story of the Syro-
Phcenician woman (Mark vii. 24, et seq.\ which
evidently signifies that the Pagan may obtain grace,
provided he have faith, is humble and recognises the
precedence of the son of the house, is in perfect har
mony with the part which is played by Peter in the
history of the centurion Cornelius. Peter, it is true,
appears much later to Paul as a timid man, but he
was none the less, in his day, the first to recognise the
calling of the Gentiles.
62 THE GOSPELS AND
We shall see later what kind of modifications it was
thought necessary to introduce into the first Greek
version, in order to make it acceptable to the faith
ful, and how, from that revision, emerged the Gospels
attributed to Matthew and Luke. One cardinal fact
of primitive Christian literature is that these con
nected, and in a sense more complete texts, did not
cause the primitive text to disappear, The little work
of Mark was preserved, and soon, thanks to the con
venient but altogether erroneous hypothesis which
makes of him "a divine abbreviator," he took his
place amongst the mysterious four evangelists. Is it
certain that the text of Mark can have remained pure
from all interpolations, that the text which we read
to-day is purely and simply the first Greek Gospel ?
It would be a bold thing to affirm that it is. At the
very time that it was found necessary to compose,
other Gospels bearing other names, taking Mark for
the foundation, it is very possible that Mark himself
may have been retouched, whilst his name was still
left at the head of the book. Many particulars ap
pear to suppose a sort of retroactive influence upon
the text of Mark, exercised by the Gospels composed
after Mark. But these are complicated hypotheses
of which there is no absolute proof. The Gospel
of Mark presents a perfect unity and, except for
certain matters of detail where the manuscripts
differ, apart from those little retouchings, from
which the Christian writings have, almost with
out exception, suffered, it does not appear to have
received any considerable addition since it was
composed.
The characteristic feature of the Gospel of Mark
was, from the first, the absence of the genealogies and
of the legends relating to the infancy of Jesus. If
there was a gap which ought to be filled up for the
benefit of Catholic readers, it was to be found there.
And yet no attempt was made to fill it. Many other
fHE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 63
particulars, inconvenient from the apologist s point
of view, were not erased. The story of the Resurrec
tion alone presents itself in Mark with evident traces
of violence. The best manuscripts stop after the
words ephobountogar (xvi. 8). It is scarcely prob
able that the primitive text should have finished so
abruptly. On the other hand, it is very likely that
something followed which was shocking to received
ideas, and it was cut out, but the conclusion ephoboun-
togar being very unsatisfactory, various little clauses
were invented, not one of which possessed sufficient
authority to exclude the others from the manuscripts.
When Matthew, and, above all, Luke, omit certain
passages which are actually in Mark, are we forced to
conclude that these passages were not in the proto-
Mark ? We are not. The authors of the second
version selected and omitted, guided by the sentiment
of an instinctive art and by the unity of their work.
It has been said, for example, that the Passion was
wanting in the primitive Mark, because Luke, who
has followed him up to that point, does not follow
him in the narrative of the last hours of Jesus. The
truth is that Luke has taken for the Passion another
guide more symbolical, more touching than Mark, and
Luke was too great an artist to muddle his colours.
The Passion of Mark, on the contrary, is the truest,
the most ancient, the most historical. The second
version in any case is always blunter, more governed
by d priori reasons than those which have preceded
it. Precise details are matters of indifference to gen
erations which have not known the primitive actors.
What is pre-eminently required is an account with
clear outlines and significant in all its parts.
There is everything to lead us to believe that Mark
did not write down his Gospel until after the death of
Peter. Papias assumes this when he tells us that
Mark wrote " from memory " what he had from Peter.
Finally the fact that the Gospel of Mark contains
64 tHE GOSPELS AND
evident allusion to the catastrophe of the year 70 is
decisive when we admit the unity and integrity of the
work. The author puts into the mouth of Jesus in
Chapter xiii. a species of apocalypse wherein are
intermingled predictions relative to the capture of
Jerusalem and the approaching end of time. We
believe that this littte apocalypse, in part designed to
induce the faithful to retire to Pella, was spread
amongst the community of Jerusalem about the year
68. It certainly did not then contain the prediction
of the destruction of the Temple. The author of the
Johanine apocalypse, however well he may have
understood the Christian conscience, did not yet
believe, in the later days of 68 or the early days of 69,
that the Temple would be destroyed. Naturally all
the collections of the life and words of Jesus which
adopted this fragment as prophetic would modify it
in the light of accomplished facts, and would see in it
a clear prediction of the ruin of the Temple. It is
probable that the Gospel of the Hebrews in its first
form contained the apocalyptic discourse in question.
The Hebrew Gospel, indeed, certainly contained the
passage relating to the murder of Zecharias, son of
Barachias, a feature which took its rise about the time
of the apocalyptic discourse in question. Mark would
scarcely venture to neglect a matter so striking. He
supposes that Jesus in the last days of his life clearly
foresaw the ruin of the Jewish nation, and took that
ruin as the measure of the time which must elapse
before his second appearing. "In those days after
that tribulation . . . they shall see the Son of Man
coming in the clouds with great power and glory."
Such a formula notoriously assumes that at the
moment when the author wrote the ruin of Jerusalem
was accomplished, but accomplished very lately.
On the other hand, the Gospel of St Mark was com
posed before all the eye-witnesses of the life of Jesus
were dead. Hence we may see within what narrow
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 65
limits the possible date of the compilation of the book
is restricted. In all ways we are brought to the first
years of calm which followed the war of Judea. Mark
could not have been more than fifty-five years old.
According to all appearances, it was at Rome that
Mark composed this first attempt at a Greek gospel,
which, imperfect though it is, contains the essential
outlines of the subject. Such is the old tradition, and
there is nothing improbable in it. Rome was, after
Syria, the headquarters of Christianity. Latinisms are
more frequent in the little work of Mark than in any
other of the New Testament writings. The biblical
texts to which reference is made recall the Septuagint.
Many details lead to the belief that the writer had in
view readers who knew little of Palestine and Jewish
customs. The express citations from the Old Testa
ment made by the author himself may be reduced to
one; the exegetical reasonings which characterise
Matthew and even Luke are wanting in Mark ; the
name of the Law never drops from his pen. Nothing,
in fact, obliges us to believe that this may be a work
sensibly different from that of which the Presbyter
Joannes in the first years of the second century said
to Papias : " The Presbyters still say this : Mark,
become the interpreter of Peter, wrote exactly but
without order all that he remembered of the words
and actions of Christ. For he did not hear or follow
the Lord ; but later, as I have said, he followed Peter,
who made his didascalies according to the necessities
of the moment, and not as if he wished to prepare a
methodical statement of the discourses of the Lord ;
hence Mark is in no way to be blame d if he has thus
written down but a small number of details, such as
he remembered them. He had but one concern, to
omit nothing that he had heard, and to let nothing
pass that was false."
66 THE GOSPELS AND
CHAPTER VIII.
CHRISTIANITY AND THE EMPIRE UNDER FLAV1US.
FAR from diminishing the importance of the Jews at
Eome, the war of Judea had in a sense contributed
to increase it. Rome was by far the greatest Jewish
city in the world : she had inherited all the import
ance of Jerusalem. The war of Judea had cast into
Italy thousands of Jewish slaves. From 65 to 72 all
prisoners made during the war had been sold whole
sale. The places of prostitution were filled with Jews
and Jewesses of the most distinguished families.
Legend has pleased itself by building a most romantic
structure on this foundation.
Except for the heavy poll tax which oppressed the
Jews, and which was for Christians more than an ex
action, the reign of Vespasian was not remarkable for
any special severities towards the two branches of the
House of Israel. We have seen that the new dynasty,
far from drawing down upon itself the contempt of
Judaism in the beginning, had been compelled by
the fact of the war of Judea, inseparable from its ap
proach, to contract obligations towards a great number
of Jews. It must be remembered that Vespasian and
Titus, before attaining to power, had remained about
four years in Syria, and had there formed many con
nections. Tiberius Alexander was the man to whom the
Flavii owed the most. He continued to occupy one of
the chief positions in the state ; his statue was one of
those which adorned the Forum. Nee meiere fas est !
said the old Romans in their wrath, irritated by that
intrusion of the Orientals. Herod Agrippa II., whilst
continuing to reign and to coin money at Tiberias and
Paneas, lived at Rome surrounded by his co-religionists,
keeping up a great state, astonishing the Romans by
the pomp and ostentation with which he celebrated
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 67
the Jewish feasts. He displayed in his relations a
certain largeness, since he had for his secretary the
radical Justus of Tiberias, who had no scruple in
eating the bread of a man whom he had certainly
more than once accused of treason. Agrippa was
decorated with the ornaments of the priesthood, and
received from the Emperor an augmentation of fiefs
on the side of Hermon.
His sisters Drusilla and Berenice also lived at
Rome. Berenice, notwithstanding her already ripe
age, exercised over the heart of Titus such an empire,
that she had the design of marrying him, and Titus
it was said had promised her, and was only deterred
by political considerations. Berenice inhabited the
palace, and, pious as she was, lived openly with the
destroyer of her country. The jealousy of Titus was
active, and it appears to have contributed, not less
than policy, to the murder of Caecina. The Jewish
favourite enjoyed to the full her royal rights. Legal
cases were taken under her jurisdiction, and Quintilian
relates that he pleaded before her in a case in which
she was both judge and party. Her luxury astonished
the Romans; she ruled the fashions; a ring which
she had worn on her finger sold for an insane price ;
but the serious world despised her, and openly de
scribed her relations with her brother Agrippa as
incestuous. Other Herodians still lived in Italy,
perhaps at Naples, in particular that Agrippa, son of
Agrippa and Felix, who perished in the eruption of
Vesuvius. In a word, all these dynasties of Syria
and Armenia which had embraced Judaism, remained
with the new Imperial family in daily relations of
intimacy.
Around this aristocratic world the subtle and
prudent Josephus hovered, like a complaisant servant.
Since his entry into the household of Vespasian and
of Titus, he had taken the name of Flavius, and in
the usual manner of a common-place soul, he reconciled
68 THE GOSPELS AND
contradictory characters he was obsequious to tne
executioners of his country, he was a boaster concern
ing his national memories. His domestic life, until
then by no means correct, now began to become orderly.
After his defection, he had been weak enough to
accept from Vespasian a young prisoner from Cesarea,
who left him as soon as she could. At Alexandria he
took another wife, by whom he had three children.
Two of them died young, and he repudiated his wife,
he says, on the ground of incompatability of temper,
about the year 74. He then married a Jewess of
Crete, in whom he found all perfections, and who bore
him two children. His Judaism had always been lax,
and became more and more so ; it was very easy to
believe that even at the period of the greatest Galilean
fanaticism he was a liberal, preventing the forcible
circumcision of people, and protesting that everyone
ought to worship God in his own way. This idea
that everyone should choose his own form of worship
gained the day, and lent powerful help to the pro
pagation of a religion founded on a rational idea of
the divinity.
Josephus had undoubtedly a superficial Greek
education, of which, like a clever man, he knew how to
make the most. He read the Greek historians ; that
reading provoked him to emulation ; he saw the
possibility of writing in the same way the history of
the last misfortunes of his country. Too little of an
artist to understand the temerity of his undertaking,
he plunged into it, as happens sometimes with Jews
who begin in literature in a foreign tongue, like one
who fears nothing. He was not yet accustomed to
write in Greek, and it was in Syro-Chaldaic that he
made the first version of his work ; later he put for
ward the Greek version which has come down to
our own times. Notwithstanding his protestations,
Josephus is not a truthful man. He has the Jewish
defect the defect most opposed to a healthy manner
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 69
of writing history an extreme personality. A
thousand preoccupations govern him ; first the neces
sity for pleasing his new masters, Titus and Herod
Agrippa ; then the desire of proving his own import
ance, and of showing to those of his compatriots who
looked askance at him, that he had acted only from
the purest inspirations of patriotism ; then an honest
sentiment in many respects which induces him to
present the character of his nation in the light which
would compromise them least in the eyes of the
Romans. The rebellion, he pretends, was the work of
a handful of madmen ; Judaism is a pure doctrine
elevated in philosophy, inoffensive in policy ; the Jews
moderate, and, far from making common cause with
sectaries, have usually been their first victims. How
could they be the enemies of the Romans ? they who
had asked from the Romans aid and protection against
the revolutionaries ? These systematic views contra
dict on every page the pretended impartiality of the
historian.
The work was submitted (at least Josephus wishes
us to believe so) to the criticism of Agrippa and of
Titus, who appear to have approved it. Titus would
have gone further; he would have signed with his
own hand the copy which was intended to serve as a
type, to show that it was according to this volume
that he desired that the history of the siege of
Jerusalem should be told. The exaggeration here is
palpable. What is clearly evident is the existence
around Titus of a Jewish coterie which flattered him,
which desired to persuade him that, far from having
been the cruel destroyer of Judaism, he had wished to
save the Temple ; that Judaism had killed itself, and
that, in any case, a superior decree of the Divine will,
of which Titus had been but the instrument, hovered
over all. Titus was evidently pleased to hear this
theory maintained. He willingly forgot his cruelties,
and the decree that he had to all appearance pro-
f THE GOSPELS AND
nounced against the Temple, when the vanquished
themselves came to offer such apologies. Titus had a
great fund of humanity; he affected an extreme
moderation ; he was without doubt very well pleased
that this version should be circulated throughout the
Jewish world ; but he was also well pleased when in
the Roman world the story was told in quite a differ
ent way, and represented him upon the walls of Jeru
salem as the haughty conqueror breathing only fire
and death.
The sentiment of sympathy for the Jews, which is
thus implied on the part of Titus, might be expected
to extend itself to the Christians. Judaism, as Jose-
phus understood it, approached Christianity on many
sides, especially the Christianity of St Paul. Like
Josephus, the majority of the Christians had con
demned the insurrection, and cursed the zealots. They
loudly professed submission to the Romans. Like
Josephus they held the ritual part of the Law as
secondary, and understood the sonship of Abraham in
a moral sense. Josephus himself appears to have been
favourable to the Christians, and to have spoken of the
chiefs of the sect with sympathy. Berenice, on her
side, and her brother Agrippa, had had for St Paul
a sentiment of benevolent curiosity. The private
friends of Titus were rather favourable than unfavour
able to the disciples of Jesus, by which circumstance
may be explained the fact, which appears incontest
able, that there were Christians in the very household
of Flavius. Let it be remembered that this family
did not belong to the great Roman aristocracy ; that
it formed part of what may be called the provincial
middle class ; that it had not, consequently, against
the Jews and Orientals in general, the prejudices of
the Roman nobility, prejudices which we shall soon
see regain all their power under Nerva, and bring
about a century of almost continuous persecution of
the Christians. That dynasty fully admitted popular
t&E SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. *T1
charlatanism. Vespasian had no scruple about his
miracles of Alexandria, and when he remembered that
juggleries had had much to do with his fortune, he no
doubt felt merely an increase of that sceptical gaiety
which was habitual to him.
The conversions which brought the faith in Jesus
so near to the throne, were probably not effected
until the reign of Domitian. The Church of Rome
was reformed but slowly. The inclination which
Christians had felt about the year 68 to flee from
a town upon which they expected every moment the
wrath of God to descend, had grown weak. The
generation mown down by the massacres of 64 was
replaced by the continual immigration which Rome
received from other parts of the Empire. The sur
vivors of the massacres of Nero breathed at last, they
considered themselves as in a little provisional Para
dise, and compared themselves with the Israelites after
they had passed the Red Sea. The persecution of 64
presented itself to them as a sea of blood, where all
had only not been drowned. God had inverted the
parts, and as to Pharaoh, he had given to their exe
cutioners blood to drink : it was the blood of the civil
wars, which from 68 to 70 had poured out in torrents.
The exact list of the ancient presbyteri or episcopi
of the Roman Church is unknown. Peter, if he went
to Rome, as we believe, occupied there an exceptional
place, and would certainly have had no successor
properly so-called. It was not until a hundred years
afterwards, when the episcopate was regularly con
stituted, that any attempt was made to present a con
secutive list of the successors of Peter as bishops of
Rome. There are no accurate memorials until after
the time of Xystus, who died about 125. The interval
between Xystus and St Peter is filled with the names
of Roman presbyters who had left some reputation.
After Peter we come upon a certain Linus, of whom
nothing certain is known ; then Anenclet, whose name
72 THE GOSPELS AND
was disfigured afterwards, and of whom two person
ages were compounded, Clet and Anaclet.
One phenomenon which is manifested more and
more is that the Church of Rome became the heiress
of that of Jerusalem, and was in some sort substituted
for it. There was the same spirit, the same traditional
and hierarchical authority, the same taste for com
mand. Judeo-Ohristianity reigned at Rome as at
Jerusalem. Alexandria was not yet a great Christian
centre. Ephesus, even Antioch, could not struggle
against the preponderance which the capital of the
Empire, by the very nature of things, tended more
and more to arrogate to itself.
Vespasian arrived at an advanced old age, esteemed
by the serious part of the Empire, repairing, in the
bosom of a profound peace, with the aid of an active
and intelligent son, the evils which Nero and the civil
war had created. The high aristocracy, without
having much sympathy for a family of parvenus men
of capacity but without distinction, and of manners
sufficiently common sustained and seconded it. They
were at last delivered from the detestable school of
Nero, a school of wicked, immoral, and frivolous
men, wretched soldiers and administrators. The
honest party which, after the cruel trial of the reign
of Domitian was to arrive definitely at power with
Nerva, breathed at last, and already was almost
triumphant. Only the madmen and the debauchees
of Rome who had loved Nero laughed at the parsi
mony of the old General, without dreaming that that
economy was perfectly simple and altogether praise
worthy. The treasury of the Emperor was not clearly
distinguished from his private fortune ; but the
treasury of Nero had been sadly dilapidated. The
situation of a family without fortune, like that of
Flavius, borne to power under such circumstances,
became very embarrassing. Galba, who was of the
great nobility, but of serious habits, was lost because
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 73
one day at the theatre he offered to a player on the
flute who had been much applauded, five denarii,
which he drew from his purse. The crowd received
it with a song :
" Onesimus comes from the village,"
the burden of which the spectators repeated in chorus.
There was no way of pleasing these impertinents save
by magnificence and cavalier manners. Vespasian
would have found it much more easy to obtain pardon
for crimes than for his rather vulgar good sense, and
that species of awkwardness which the poor officer
usually retains who has risen from the ranks by his
merits. The human race is so little disposed to
encourage goodness and devotion in its sovereigns,
that it is sometimes surprising that the offices of king
and of emperor still find conscientious men to dis
charge them.
A more importunate opposition than that of the
idlers of the amphitheatre and the worshippers of the
memory of Nero, was that of the philosophers, or, to
be more correct, of the republican party. This party,
which had reigned for thirty-six hours after the death
of Caligula, gained, on the death of Nero, and during
the civil war which followed that event, an unexpected
importance. Men highly considered, like Helvidius
Priscus, with his wife Fannia (daughter of Thrasea),
were seen to refuse the most simple fictions of imperial
etiquette, to affect with regard to Vespasian an air at
once cavilling and full of effrontery. We must do
Vespasian the justice to remember that it was with
great regret that he treated the grossest provocations
with rigour, provocations which were the simple result
of the goodness and simplicity of this excellent sove
reign. The philosophers imagined, with the best faith
in the world, that they defended the dignity of man
with their little literary allusions ; they did not see
that in reality they defended only the privileges of an
74 THE GOSPELS AND
aristocracy, and that they were preparing for the
ferocious reign of Domitian. They hoped for the im
possible, a municipal republic governing the world,
public spirit in an immense Empire composed of the
most diverse and unequal races. Their madness was
almost as great as that of the lunatics whom we have
seen in our own days dreaming that the Commune of
Paris could be the monarchy of France. Thus the
good spirits of the time, Tacitus, the two Plinies,
Quintilian, saw clearly the vanity of this political
school. Whilst full of respect for Helvidius Priscus,
the Rusticus, the Senecion, they abandoned the re
publican chimera. Seeking no more than to ameliorate
the princely power, they drew from it the finest fruits
for about a century.
Alas ! that power had the cardinal defect of floating
between the elective dictatorship and the hereditary
monarchy. Every monarchy aspires to be hereditary,
not merely because of what the democracies call the
egotism of the family, but because monarchy is advan
tageous for the people only when it is hereditary.
Heredity, on the other hand, is impossible without the
Germanic principle of fidelity. All the Roman Em
perors aimed at heredity ; but heredity could never
extend beyond the second generation, and it scarcely
ever produced any but fatal consequences. The world
only breathes when through particular circumstances
adoption (the system best adapted to Caesarism) pre
vails ; there was in it only a happy chance ; Marcus
Aurelius had a son, and lost everything.
Vespasian was exclusively preoccupied with this
cardinal question. Titus, his eldest son, at the age
of thirty -nine, had no male issue, nor had Domitian at
twenty-seven a son. The ambition of Domitian ought
to have been satisfied with such hopes. Titus openly
announced him as his successor, and contented himself
with desiring that he should marry his daughter Julia
Sabina. But in spite of so many favourable condi-
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. ?5
tions, Nature gave herself up in that family to an
atrocious complication. Domitian was a scoundrel
before whom Caligula and Nero might pass for harm
less jesters. He did not hide his intention of dis
possessing his father and his brother. Vespasian and
Mucianus had a thousand difficulties in preventing
him from spoiling all.
As happens with good-hearted men, Vespasian im
proved every day as he grew older. Even his pleas
antry, which was often, from want of education, of a
coarse description, became just and fine. He was
told that a comet had shown itself in the sky. " It is
the King of the Parthians whom that concerns," said
he, "he wears long hair." Then his health growing
worse, " I think I am about to become a god," said
he, smiling. He occupied himself with business to the
last, and feeling himself dying, " an Emperor should
die standing," said he. He expired, in fact, in the
arms of those who supported him, a grand example
of manly attitude and firm bearing in the midst of
troubled times, which seemed almost desperate. The
Jews alone preserved his memory as that of a monster
who had made the entire earth groan under the
weight of his tyranny. There was without doubt
some Rabbinical legend concerning his death ; he died
in his bed they admitted, but he could not escape the
torments which he merited.
Titus succeeded him without difficulty. His virtue
was not a profound virtue like that of Antoninus or
of Marcus Aurelius. He forced himself to be virtuous,
and sometimes nature got the upper hand. Neverthe
less, a good reign was hoped for. As rarely happens,
Titus improved after his accession to power. He had
great powers of self-control, and he began by making
the most difficult of all sacrifices to public opinion.
Berenice was less than ever disposed to renounce her
hope of being married. She behaved in all respects as
if she were. Her quality of Jewess, of foreigner, of
76 THE GOSPELS AND
" Queen " a title which, like that of King, sounded ill
in the ears of a true Roman, and recalled the East
created an insurmountable obstacle to that fortune.
Nothing else was spoken of in Rome, and more than
one impertinence was daringly uttered aloud. One
day in the full theatre a cynic named Diogenes, who
had introduced himself into Rome, notwithstanding
the decrees of expulsion issued against the philo
sophers, rose, and in the presence of all the people
poured forth a torrent of insults. He was beaten.
Heras, another cynic, who thought to enjoy the same
liberty at the same price, had his head cut off. Titus
yielded, not without pain, to the murmurs of the
people. The separation was all the more cruel, since
Berenice resisted. It was necessary to send her away.
The relations of the Emperor with Josephus, and pro
bably with Herod Agrippa, remained what they had
been before the rupture. Berenice herself returned to
Rome, but Titus had no further communication with
her.
Honest folks felt their hopes revive. With the
spectacles, and a little charlatanism, it was easy to
content the people, and they remained quiet. Latin
literature, which, since the death of Augustus, had
undergone so great an eclipse, was in the way of
recovery. Vespasian seriously encouraged science,
literature, and the arts. He established the first pro
fessors paid by the state, and was thus the creator of
the teaching body, at the head of which illustrious
fraternity shines the name of Quintilian. The sickly
poetry of the epopoeias and the artificial tragedies
continued piteously. Bohemians of talent, like Mar
tial and Statius, both excellent in little verses, did
not come out from a low and barren literature. But
Juvenal attained, in the truly Latin species of satire,
an uncontested mastery for force and originality. A
haughty Roman spirit, narrow, if you will, closed,
exclusive, but full of tradition, patriotic, opposed to
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 77
foreign corruptions, breathes through his verses. The
courageous Sulpicia dared to defend the philoso
phers against Domitian. Great prose writers, above
all, sprang up, rejected all that was excessive in the
declamation of the time of Nero, preserving that part
of it which did not shock the taste, animated the
whole with an exalted moral sentiment, prepared,
in a word, that noble generation which discovered
and surrounded Nerva, which brought about the phi
losophical reigns of Trajan, of Antoninus, and of
Marcus Aurelius. Pliny the younger, who so greatly
resembles the cultivated wits of our eighteenth
century ; Quintilian, the illustrious pedagogue, who
traced the code of public instruction, the master of
our great masters in the art of education ; Tacitus,
the incomparable historian ; others, like the author of
the Dialogue of the Orators, who equalled them, but
whose names are ignored or whose writings are lost,
increased the labours which had already begun to bear
fruit. A gravity full of elevation, respect for the
moral laws and for the laws of humanity, replaced
the gross debauchery of Petronius and the excessive
philosophy of Seneca. The language is less pure
than that of the writers of the time of Caesar and of
Augustus, but it has character, audacity, something
which ought to cause it to be appreciated and imitated
in modern times, which have conceived the middle
tone of their prose in a more declamatory key than
that of the Greeks.
Under this wise and moderate rule Christians lived
in peace. The memory which Titus left in the Church
was not that of a persecutor. One event of his reign
made a lively impression. This was the eruption of
Vesuvius. The year 79 witnessed this, perhaps the
most striking phenomenon in the volcanic history of
the earth. The entire world was moved. Since
humanity had a conscience, nothing so remarkable
had ever been seen. An old crater, extinct from time
78 THE GOSPELS AND
immemorial, broke into activity with an unequalled vio
lence, just as if in our days the volcanoes of Auvergne
should recommence their most furious manifestations.
We have seen since the year 68 the preoccupation of
the volcanic phenomena fill the Christian imagination
and leave its traces in the Apocalypse. The event of
the year 79 was equally celebrated by the Judeo-
Christian seers, and provoked a species of recru
descence of the Apocalyptic spirit. The Judaising
sects especially considered the catastrophe of the
Italian towns thus swallowed up as the punishment
for the destruction of Jerusalem. The blows which
continued to rain upon the world were, to a certain
point, the justification for such imaginings. The
terror produced by these phenomena was extra
ordinary. Half of the pages of Dion Cassius which
remain to us are consecrated to prophecies. The year
80 witnessed the greatest fire Rome had ever seen, save
that of the year 64. It lasted for three days and
three nights: the whole district of the Capitol and
the Pantheon was destroyed. A frightful pestilence
ravaged the world about the same time; it was
believed to be the most terrible epidemic ever known.
The tremblings of the earth spread terror everywhere ;
famine oppressed the nations.
Would Titus keep to the end his promise of good
ness ? That was the question. Many pretended that
the part of " delight of the human race " is difficult to
maintain, and that the new Caesar would follow in
the footsteps of Tiberius, of Caligula, and of the Neros,
who after having begun well finished most badly.
Souls absolutely given over to the stoic philosophy,
like those of Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius, were
required by those who would not succumb to the
temptations of a boundless power. The character of
Titus was of a rare quality ; his attempt to reign by
goodness, his noble illusions as to the humanity of
his times, were something liberal and touching ; his
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 79
morality was not, however, of a perfect solidity; it
was forced. He repressed his vanity and forced him
self to propose purely objective aims in life. But a
philosophical and virtuous temperament is of more
value than a ready-made morality. The tempera
ment does not change ; morality of that kind may do
so. It might be that the goodness of Titus was only
the effect of an arrested development ; it was asked if
in the course of years he was not likely to become
such another as Domitian.
These, however, were only retrospective apprehen
sions. Death came to withdraw Titus from a trial
which might have been fatal had it been too prolonged.
His health failed visibly. At every instant he wept
as if, after having attained the highest rank in the
world, he saw the frivolity of all things in spite of
appearances. Once especially, at the end of the cere
mony of the inauguration of the Coliseum, he burst
into tears before the people. In his last journey to
Rhsetum he was overwhelmed with sadness. At one
moment he was seen to draw back the curtains of
his litter, to look at the sky, and to swear that he
had not deserved death. Perhaps it was the wasting,
the enervation produced by the part which he chose
to play, the life of debauchery which he had lived at
various times before attaining to the Empire, that was
the cause of this. Perhaps also it was the protest
which a noble soul had in such a time the right to
raise against destiny. His nature was sentimental
and amiable. The frightful wickedness of his brother
killed him. He saw clearly that if he did not take
the initiative, Domitian would. To have dreamed of
the empire of the world, to make himself adored by
it, to see his dream accomplished, and then to see its
vanity, and to recognise that in politics good nature
is a mistake ; to see evil rise before him in the form
of a monster, saying, " Kill me or I will kill you !
What a trial for a good heart! Titus had not the
80 THE GOSPELS AND
hardness of a Tiberius, or the resignation of a Marcus
Aurelius. Let it be remembered also that his
hygenic regime was the worst conceivable At all
times, and especially in his house near Rhsetum, where
the waters were very cold, Titus took baths sufficient
to kill the most robust of men. All this assuredly
renders it unnecessary to suppose that his premature
death was the effect of poison. Domitian was not a
fratricide in the material sense; he became one
through his hatred, his jealousy, his undisguised
desires. His attitude after the death of his father
was a perpetual conspiracy. Titus had scarcely given
up the ghost when Domitian obliged all those about
him to abandon him as dead, and, mounting his horse,
hurried to the camp of the Praetorian Guard.
The world mourned but Israel triumphed. That
unexplained death from exhaustion and philosophical
melancholy, was it not a manifest judgment from
heaven upon the destroyer of the Temple the
guiltiest man the world had yet seen ? The rabbinical
legend on this subject took as usual a puerile turn
which, however, was not wholly without justice.
" Titus the wicked," said the Agadists, " died through
the bite of a fly which introduced itself into his brain
and killed him amidst atrocious tortures." Always
the dupes of popular reports, the Jews and the Chris
tians of the time generally believed in the fratricide.
According to them, the cruel Domitian, the murderer
of Clemens, the persecutor of the saints, was more
than the assassin of his brother, and that foundation,
like the parricide of Nero, became one of the bases
of a new apocalyptic symbolism, as we shall see
somewhat later on.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION.
CHAPTER IX.
PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY EGYPT SIBYLLISM.
THE tolerance which Christianity enjoyed under the
reign of the Flavii was eminently favourable to its
development. Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome, especi
ally, were the active centres where the name of Jesus
became every day more and more important, and from
which the new faith shone out. If we except the
exclusive Ebionites of Batanea, the relations between
the Judeo-Christians and the converted Pagans be
came every day more easy ; prejudices were set aside ;
a fusion was wrought. In many important towns
there were two Presbyteries and two Episcopi, one for
Christians of Jewish extraction, the other for the
faithful of Pagan origin. It is supposed that the
Episcopos of the converted Pagans had been instituted
by St Paul, and the other by some apostle of Jeru
salem. It is true that in the third and fourth cen
turies this hypothesis was abused, in order that the
Churches might escape from the difficulty in which
they found themselves when they sought to found a
regular succession of bishops with antagonistic ele
ments of tradition. Nevertheless, the double character
of the two Churches appears to have been a real fact.
Such was the diversity of education of the two sections
of the Christian community, that the same pastor
could scarcely give to both the teaching of which they
stood in need.
Matters fell out thus especially when, as at Antioch,
the difference of origin was joined with difference of
language, where one of the groups spoke Syriac and
the other Greek. Antioch appears to have had two
successions of Presbyteri, one belonging in theory to
St Peter, the other to St Paul. The constitution of
the two lists was managed in the same way as the
82 THE GOSPELS AND
lists of the Bishops of Rome. They took the oldest
names of the Presbyteri whom they remembered, that
of a certain Evhode much respected that of Igna
tius who was greatly celebrated and put them at
the heads of the files of the two series. Ignatius
died only under the reign of Trajan ; St Paul saw
Antioch for the last time in 54. The same thing then
happened for Ignatius as for Clement, for Papias and
for a great number of personages of the second and
third Christian generations the dates were garbled,
so that they might be supposed to have received from
the Apostles their institution or their teaching.
Egypt, which for a long time was much behind-hand
in the matter of Christianity, probably received the
germ of the new faith under the Flavii. The tradition
of the preaching of St Mark at Alexandria is one of
those tardy inventions by which the great Churches
sought to give themselves an Apostolic antiquity. The
general outline of the life of St Mark is well known ;
it is in Rome and not in Alexandria that it must be
sought. When all the great Churches pretended to
an Apostolic foundation, the Church of Alexandria,
already very considerable, wished to supply titles of
nobility which it did not possess. Mark was almost the
only one amongst the personages of Apostolic history
who had not yet been appropriated. In reality the
cause of the absence of the name of Egypt from the
narrative of the Acts of the Apostles and from the
Epistles of St Paul is that Egypt had a sort of pre-
Christianity which long held it closed against Chris
tianity properly so called. She had Philo, she had
the Therapeutes, that is to say, doctrines so like those
which grew up in Judea and Galilee that it was un
necessary for her to lend an attentive ear -to the latter.
Later, it was maintained that the Therapeutes were
nothing else than the Christians of St Mark, whose
kind of life Philo had described. It was a strange
hallucination. In a certain sense, however, this bizarre.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 83
confusion was not altogether so devoid of truth as
might be imagined at the first glance.
Christianity appears indeed to have had a very un
decided character in Egypt for a long time. The
members of the old Therapeutic communities of Lake
Narcotis, if their existence must be admitted, ought
to appear like saints to the disciples of Jesus, the Exe-
getas of the school of Philo, like Apollos, marched side
by side with Christianity, entered into it even without
staying there ; the other Alexandrine Jewish authors
of the apocryphal books shared largely, it is said, in
the ideas which prevailed in the Council of Jerusalem.
When the Jews, animated, it is said, by like senti
ments, heard Jesus spoken of, it was unnecessary that
they should be converted in order to sympathise with
his disciples. The confraternity established itself.
A curious monument of the spirit, peculiar to Egypt,
has been preserved in one of the Sibylline poems a
poem dated with great precision from the reign of
Titus or one of the first years of Domitian, which the
critics have been able, with almost equal reason, to
accept as Christian on the one hand and Essenian or
Therapeutic on the other. The truth is that the
author was a Jewish sectary, floating between Christi
anity, Baptism, Essenism, and inspired, before all things,
by the dominant idea of the Sibyllists, who were the
first preachers of monotheism to the Pagans, and of
morality, under cover of a simplified Judaism.
Sibyllism was born in Alexandria about the time
when apocalypticism came into existence in Palestine.
The two parallel theories owed their existence to
analogous spiritual conditions. One of the laws of
every apocalypse is the attribution of the work to
some celebrity of past times. The opinion of the
present day is that the list of great prophets is closed,
and that no modern can pretend to equal the ancient
inspired ones. What then was a man to do who was
possessed with the idea of producing his thought and
84 THE GOSPELS
giving to it the authority which would be lacking if
he published it as his own ? He takes the mantle of
an ancient man of God and boldly puts forth his book
under the shelter of a venerated name. The forger
who, to expound an idea which he thinks just, abne
gates his own personality in this way, has not a
shadow of scruple. Far from believing that he in
jures the antique sage whose name he takes, he thinks
he does him honour by attributing to him good and
beautiful thoughts. And as to the public to whom
these writings were addressed, the complete absence
of criticism prevented anyone from raising a shadow
of objection. In Palestine the authorities chosen to
serve as name-lenders to these new revelations were
real or fictitious personages whose holiness was known
to and admitted by all Daniel, Enoch, Moses, Solomon,
Baruch, Esdras. At Alexandria, where the Jews were
initiated into the Greek literature, and where they
aspired to exercise an intellectual and moral influence
over the Pagans, the forgers chose renowned Greek
philosophers or moralists. It is thus that we see
Aristobalus alleging false quotations from Homer,
Hesiod, and Linus, and that there was soon a pseudo-
Orpheus, a pseudo-Pythagoras, an aprocryphal corre
spondence of Heraclites, a moral poem attributed to
Phocylides. The object of all these works was the
same ; they preached deism to idolators and the
precepts known as Noachian, that is to say, Judaism
mitigated for their use or reduced almost to the pro
portions of the natural law. Two or three observ
ances only were retained which in the eyes of the
most liberal Jews passed almost as forming part of
the natural law.
The Sibyls present themselves to the mind as forgers
in search of incontestable authorities under cover of
whom they may present themselves to the Greeks the
ideas which were dear to them. They already circu
lated little poems, pretended Cumseans, Erythaeans,
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 85
full of threats, prophesying calamities to different
countries. These dicta, which had a great effect on
the popular imagination, especially when fortuitous
coincidences appeared to justify them, were conceived
in the old epic hexameter, in a language which affected
a resemblance to that of Homer. The Jewish forgers
adopted the same rhythm, and, the better to deceive
credulous people, they served in their text some of
those threats which they thought in harmony with
the character of the ancient prophetic virgins.
Sibyllism was thus the form of the Alexandrine
Apocalypse. When a Jew a friend of the good and
of the true in that tolerant and sympathetic school
wished to address warnings or counsels to the Pagans,
he made one of the prophetesses of the Pagan world
to speak, to give to his utterances a force which they
would not otherwise have had. He took the tone of
the Erythsean oracles, forced himself to imitate the
traditional style of the prophetic poetry of the Greeks,
provided himself with some of these versified threats
which made a great impression on the people, and
framed the whole in pious utterances. Let us repeat
it such frauds with a good object were in no way
repugnant to anybody. By the side of the Jewish
manufactory of false classics, the art of which con
sisted in putting into the mouths of Greek philo
sophers and moralists the maxims which they were
desirous of inculcating, there was established in the
second century before Christ a pseudo-Sibyllism in
the interest of the same ideas. In the time of the
Flavii, an Alexandrine looked up the long interrupted
tradition and added some new pages to the former
oracles. These pages are of a remarkable beauty.
Happy is he who wui ships the Great God, him whom human
hands have not made, who hath no temple, whom mortal eye
cannot see nor hand measure. Happy are those who pray before
they eat, and before they drink ; who, at sight of the temples
make a sign of protestation, and who turn away with horror
86 THE GOSPELS AND
from the altars bedabbled with blood. Murder, shameful gain,
adultery, the crimes against nature, do they hold in horror.
Other men given over to their perverse desires run after these
holy men with laughter and with insult ; in their madness they
charge them with the crimes of which they themselves have
been guilty ; but the judgment of God shall be accomplished.
The impious shall be cast into darkness, but the godly shall
dwell in a fertile land, and the Spirit of God shall give to them
light and grace.
After this exordium came the essential parts of
every apocalypse ; first a theory concerning the suc
cession of empires a species of philosophy of history
imitated from Daniel ; then signs in heaven, trem
blings of the earth, islands emerging from the depths of
the sea, wars, famines, and all the preparations which
announce the coming of God s judgment. The author
particularly mentions the earthquake at Laodicsea in
60 ; that of Myra ; the invasions of the sea at Lycia,
which took place in 68. The sufferings of Jerusalem
then appeared to him. A powerful king, the mur
derer of his mother, flees from Italy, ignored, unknown,
under the disguise of a slave, and takes refuge beyond
the Euphrates. There he waits in hiding whilst the
candidates for the Empire make bloody war. A
Roman chief will deliver the Temple to the flames and
will destroy the Jewish nation. The bowels of Italy
will be torn ; a flame will come out of her and will
mount to heaven, destroying the cities, consuming
thousands of men ; a black dust will fill the air ;
lapilli like vermillion red will fall from heaven.
Then it may be hoped men will recognise the wrath
of God Most High, the wrath which has fallen on
them because they have destroyed the innocent tribe
of pious men. As the topstone of misfortune, the
fugitive king, hidden behind the Euphrates, will
draw his great sword and will recross the Euphrates
with myriads of men.
It will be remarked how immediately this work
follows the Apocalypse of St John. Taking up the
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 87
ideas of the seer of 68 or 69, the Sibyllist of 81 or 82,
confirmed in his dark previsions by the eruption of
Vesuvius, revives the popular belief of Nero living
beyond the Euphrates, and announces his immediate
return. Some indications exist that there was a false
Nero under Titus. A more serious attempt was made
in 88, and nearly brought about a war with the
Parthians. The prophecy of our Sibyllist is without
doubt prior to that date. He announces in effect a
terrible war ; now the affair of the false Nero under
Titus, if it ever occurred, was not serious, and as to the
false Nero of 88, he created nothing more than a false
alarm.
When piety, faith, and justice shall have entirely
disappeared, when no one will care for pious men,
when all will seek to kill them, taking pleasure in
insulting them, plunging their hands in their blood,
then will be seen an end to the Divine patience ;
trembling with wrath, God will annihilate the human
race with fire.
Ah ! wretched mortals ! change your conduct ; do not force
the great God to the last outbreak of his wrath ; leaving your
swords, your quarrels, your murders, your violence, wash your
whole bodies in running water, and, lifting up your hands to
Heaven, ask pardon for your sins that are past, and with your
prayers heal yourselves of your dreadful impieties. Then will
God repent him of his threat, and will not destroy you. His
wrath shall be appeased if you cultivate this precious piety in
your hearts. But if you persist in your evil mind ; if you do
not obey me, and if, nursing your madness, you receive these
warnings ill, fire shall spread itself upon the earth, and these
shall be the signs of it. At the rising of the sun there shall be
sounds in the heavens and the noise of trumpets ; the whole
earth shall hear bellowings and a terrible uproar. Fire shall
burn the earth ; the whole race of man shall perish, and the
world shall be reduced to small dust.
When all shall be in ashes, and God shall have put out the
great fire which he had kindled, then shall the Almighty re
store form to the dust and bones of men, and restore man as he
was l&lt;efore. Then shall come the Judgment, when God himself
ahall judge the world. Those who remain hardened in their
88 THE GOSPELS AND
wickedness, the earth spread upon their heads shall recover
them ; they shall be cast into the abysses of Tartarus and of
Jehannum, sister of Styx. But those who have lived a pious
and godly life shall live again in the world of the Great and
Eternal God, in the bosom of imperishable happiness, and God
shall give them, to reward their piety, spirit, life, and grace.
Then all shall see themselves, and their eyes shall behold the
nndying light of a sun that shall never go down. Blessed is the
man who shall see those days !
Was the author of this poem a Christian ? He cer
tainly was one at heart, but he was one also by his
style. The critics who see in this fragment the work
of a disciple of Jesus, support their view principally
upon the invitation to the Gentiles to be converted
and to wash their whole bodies in the rivers. But
baptism was not an exclusively Christian rite. There
were by the side of Christianity sects of Baptists, of
Hemero-Baptists, with whom the Sibylline verse would
agree better, since Christian baptism can be adminis
tered but once, whilst the baptism mentioned in the
poem would seem to have been like the prayer which
accompanied it, a pious practice for the washing away
of sin, a sacrament which might be renewed, and which
the penitent administered to himself. What would
be altogether inconceivable is that in a Christian
apocalypse of nearly two hundred verses written at
the beginning of the age of Domitian there was not
a single word about the resurrection of Jesus or of
the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds to judge
the quick and the dead. If we add to that the em
ployment of mythological expressions, of which there
is no example in the first century, an artificial style
which is a pasticcio of the old Homeric style which
takes for granted a study of the profane poets and
a long stay in the schools of the grammarians of Alex
andria, our case is complete.
The Sibylline literature appears then to have origin
ated amongst the Essenian or Therapeutic communities;
now the Therapeutists, the Essenians, the Baptists, the
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 89
Sibyllists, lived in an order of ideas very like that of
the Christians, and differing from them only on the
point of the worship of the person of Jesus. Later
on, without doubt, all these sects were merged in the
Church. More and more but two classes of Jews
came to be left ; on the one hand, the Jew who was
a strict observer of the Law Talmudist, Casuist,
Pharisee, in a word ; on the other, the liberal Jew who
reduced Judaism to a sort of natural religion open
to virtuous Pagans. About the year 80 there were,
especially in Egypt, sects which took up this position
without, however, adhering to Jesus. Soon there will
be more, and the Christian Church will include all
those who wish to withdraw themselves from the
excessive demands of the Law, without ceasing to
belong to the spiritual family of Abraham.
The book numbered fourth in the Sibylline collec
tion is not the only one of its class which the period
of Domitian may have produced. The fragment
which serves as the preface to the entire collection,
and which has been preserved for us by Theophilus,
Bishop of Antioch (end of second century), greatly re
sembles the fourth book, and ends in the same way :
" A torrent of fire will fall upon you ; burning torches
will scorch you through all eternity ; but those who
have worshipped the true and infinite God, shall
inherit life for ever, dwelling in the free and laughing
garden of Paradise, and eating the sweet bread which
shall fall from the starry skies." This fragment
appears at first sight to present in some expressions
indications of Christianity, but expressions altogether
analogous may be found in Philo. The nascent
Christianity had outside the divine aspect lent to it
by the person of Jesus so few features specially
proper to it, that the rigid distinction between what
is Christian and what is not, becomes at times
extremely delicate.
A characteristic detail of the Sibylline Apocalypses
90 THE GOSPELS AND
is that, according to them, the world will finish by a
conflagration. Many passages in the Bible lead to
this idea. Nevertheless, it is not found in the great
Christian Apocalypse attributed to John. The first
trace of it, found amongst the Christians, is in the
Second Epistle of Peter, written, it is supposed, at a
very late date. The belief thus appears to have
sprung up in Alexandrian centres, and we are justified
in believing that it came in part from the Greek
philosophy; many schools, particularly the Stoics,
held it as a principle that the world would be con
sumed by fire. The Essenes had adopted the same
opinion ; it became, in some sort, the basis of all the
writings attributed to the Sibyl, so long as that
literary fiction continued to serve as a skeleton for
the dreams of unquiet minds as to the future. It is
there and in the writings of the psuedo Hytasper
that the Christian doctors found it. Such was the
authority of these supposed oracles, that they were
accepted as inspired, with the utmost simplicity. The
imagination of the Pagan crowd was haunted by
terrors of the same kind, utilised by more than one
impostor.
Ananias, Avilius, Cerdon, Primus, who are described
as the successors of St Mark, were without doubt old
presbyters whose names had been preserved and of
whom bishops were made when the divine origin of
the episcopate was recognised, and when every see
was expected to show an unbroken succession of pre
sidents up to the apostolic personage who was ac
credited with its foundation. Whatever it may have
been, the Church of Alexandria appears to have been
from the first of a very isolated character. It was
exceedingly anti-Jewish ; it is from its bosom that we
shall see emerge, in the course of the next fourteen
or fifteen years, the most energetic manifesto of sepa
ration between Judaism and Christianity, the treatise
known by the name of " the Epistle of Barnabas." It
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 91
will be a different matter in fifty years, when gnos
ticism shall be born there proclaiming that Judaism
was the work of an evil God, and that the essential
mission of Jesus was to dethrone Jehovah. The im
portance of Alexandria, or, if you choose, of Egypt,
in the development of Christian theology, will then
clearly describe itself. A new Christ will appear
resembling the Christ whom we know, just as the
parables of Galilee resemble the myths of Osiris or
the symbolism of the mother of Apis.
CHAPTER X.
THE GREEK GOSPEL IS CORRECTED AND COMPLETED
(MATTHEW).
THE defects and omissions in the Gospel of Mark
became every day more obnoxious. Those who knew
the beautiful addresses of Jesus as they appeared in the
Syro-Chaldaic Scriptures, regretted the dryness of the
narrative based on the tradition of Peter. Not only
did the most beautiful of his preachings appear in a
truncated form, but parts of the life of Jesus, which
had come to be recognised as essential, were altogether
omitted. Peter, faithful to the old ideas of the first
Christian century, attached little importance to the
story of the childhood and to the genealogies. Now
it was especially with respect to those things that the
Christian imagination laboured. A crowd of new
narratives sprang up ; a complete Gospel was demanded,
which to all that Mark embodied should be added all
that the best traditionists of the East knew, or believed
they knew.
Such was the origin of our text "according to
Matthew." The author has taken as the foundation
92 THE GOSPELS AND
of his work the Gospel of Mark. He follows him in
his order, in his general plan, in his characteristic
forms of expression, in a way which does not leave it
open to doubt that he had beneath his eyes, or in his
memory, the work of his predecessor. The coinci
dences in the smallest details throughout entire pages
are so literal, that one is tempted at times to declare
that the author possessed a manuscript of Mark. On
the other hand, certain changes of words, numerous
transpositions, certain omissions, the reason for which
it is not easy to explain, lead rather to the belief that
the work was done from memory. The matter is of
small consequence. What is important is that the
text said to be of Matthew supposes that of Mark as
pre-existing, and requiring only to be completed. He
completes it in two ways, first by inserting in it the
long discourses which make the Hebrew Gospels
precious, then by adding to it traditions of more
modern origin, fruits of the successive development of
the legend, and to which the Christian conscience
already attached an infinite value. The last version
has, besides, much unity of style ; a single hand has
presided over the very various fragments which have
entered into its composition. This unity leads to the
belief that for the parts engrafted upon Mark the editor
worked from the Hebrew; if he had made a translation,
we should feel the differences of style between the
foundation and the intercalated parts. Besides, the
taste of the times was rather towards new versions
than to translations properly so called. The biblical
citations of the pseudo-Matthew suppose at once the
use of a Hebrew text, or of an Aramaic Targum, and
of the version of the Seventy (the Septuagint) : a part
of his exegesis has no meaning save in Hebrew.
The fashion in which the author managed the inter
calation of the great discourses of Jesus is singular.
Whether he takes them from the collections of sentences
which may have existed at a certain period of the
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 93
evangelic tradition, or whether he takes them ready
made from the Gospel of the Hebrews, these dis
courses are inserted by him like great parentheses in
the narrative of Mark, into which he cuts as it were
grooves. The chief of these discourses, the Sermon
on the Mount, is evidently composed of parts which
have no natural connection, and which have been
only artificially brought together. The twenty-third
chapter contains all that tradition has preserved of
the reproaches which Jesus on various occasions
addressed to the Pharisees. The seven parables of the
thirteenth chapter were certainly never uttered by
Jesus on the same day, and one after another. Let us
take a familiar illustration, which alone renders our
meaning. There were, before the issue of the first
Gospel, bundles of discourses and parables where the
words of Jesus were classified for purely external
reasons. The author of the first Gospel found those
bundles ready made up, and inserted them into the
text of Mark, which served him as a canvas all tied
up together without breaking the thread which bound
them. Sometimes the text of Mark, brief though the
discourses have been made, contains some parts of the
sermons which the new editor took bodily from the
collection of the Logia, hence some repetitions.
Generally the new editor cares little about those
repetitions ; sometimes he avoids them by retrench
ments, transpositions, and certain little niceties of
style.
The insertion of traditions unknown to the old Mark
is done by the pseudo-Matthew by yet more violent
processes. In possession of some accounts of miracles
or of healings of which he does not perceive the iden
tity with those which are already told by Mark, the
author prefers telling the story twice over, to omitting
any particular. He desires, before all things, to be
complete, and he does not disquiet himself lest he
should stumble in thus arranging portions of various
94 THE GOSPELS AND
productions with contradictions and the difficulties of
narration. Hence these circumstances, obscure at the
moment when they are introduced, which are only
explained by the course of the work ; these allusions
to events of which nothing is said in the historical
part. Hence the singular doublets which characterise
the first Gospel : two cures of two blind men ; two
cures of a dumb demoniac; two multiplications of
bread ; two demands for a sign from heaven ; two in-
vectives against scandals ; two sentences on divorce.
Hence, also, perhaps, that method of proceeding by
couples which produces the effect of a sort of dupli
cate narrative ; two blind men of Jericho and two
other blind men ; two demoniacs of the Gergesenes ;
two disciples of John ; two disciples of Jesus ; two
brothers. The harmonistic exegesis produces hence
its usual results of redundance and heaviness. At
other times the cut is seen to be quite fresh, the opera
tion of the grafting by which the addition is made.
Thus the miracle of Peter a story which Mark does
not give is intercalated between Mark vi. 50 and 51
in such a way that the edges of the wound are still
raw. It is the same with the miracle of the tribute
money ; with Judas pointing himself out and ques
tioned by Jesus ; with Jesus rebuking the stroke of
Peter s sword ; with the suicide of Judas ; with the
dream of Pilate s wife, etc. If we cut out all these
details, the fruits of a later development of the legend
of Jesus, the very text of Mark remains.
In this way a crowd of legends were introduced into
the Gospel text which are wanting in Mark the gene
alogy ; the supernatural birth ; the visit of the Magi ;
the flight into Egypt ; the massacre of Bethlehem ;
Peter walking upon the water ; the prerogatives of
Peter ; the miracle of the money found in the fish s
mouth ; the eunuchs of the kingdom of God ; the
emotion of Jerusalem at the entrance of Jesus ; the
Jerusalem miracles and the triumph of the children
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 95
various legendary details about Judas, particularly his
suicide ; the order to put the sword back into its
sheath; the intervention of Pilate s wife; Pilate wash
ing his hands and the Jewish people taking all the
responsibility for the death of Jesus ; the tearing of
the curtain of the Temple ; the earthquake and the
rising of the saints at the moment of the death of
Jesus ; the guard set over the tomb, and the corrup
tion of the soldiers. In all these places the quotations
are from the Septuagint. The Editor for his personal
use avails himself of the Greek version, but when
he translates the Hebrew Gospel he conforms to the
exegesis of that original which often had no basis in
the Septuagint.
A sort of competition in the use of the marvellous ;
the taste for more and more startling miracles ; a
tendency to present the Church as already organised
and disciplined from the days of Jesus ; an ever-in
creasing repulsion for the Jews, dictated the majority
of these additions to the primitive narrative. As has
already been said, there are moments in the growth
of a dogma when days are worth centuries. A week
after his death, Jesus was the hero of a vast legend
of his life, the majority of the details to which we have
just referred were already written in advance.
One of the great factors in the creation of the
Jewish Agada are the analogies drawn from Biblical
texts. These things serve to fill up a host of gaps in
the souvenirs. The most contradictory reports were
current, for example, about the death of Judas. One
version soon prevailed : Achitophel, the betrayer of
David, served as his prototype. It was admitted that
Judas hanged himself as he did. A passage of Zechar-
iah furnished the thirty pieces of silver, the fact of
his having cast them down in the Temple, as well as
the potter s field nothing is wanting to the story.
The apologetic intention was another fertile source
of anecdotes and intercalations. Already objections
96 THE GOSPELS AND
to the Messiahship of Jesus had been raised, and re
quired answering. John the Baptist, said the mis
believers, had not believed in him or had ceased to
believe in him ; the towns where his miracles were
said to have been performed were not converted ; the
wise men and the sages of the nation despised him ; if
he had driven out devils, it was through Beelzebub ;
he had promised signs in the heavens which he had
not given. There was an answer to all this which
flattered the democratic instincts of the crowd. It
was not the nation which had repulsed Jesus, said the
Christians, it was the superior classes, always egotists,
who would none of him. Simple people would have
been for him, and the priests took him with subtlety,
for they feared the people. " It was the fault of the
Government" here is an explanation which in all
ages has been readily accepted.
The birth of Jesus and his resurrection were the
cause of endless objections from low minds and ill-
prepared hearts. The resurrection no one had seen ;
the Jews declared that the friends of Jesus had carried
his corpse away into Galilee. It was answered by the
fable of the guardians to whom the Jews had given
money to say that the disciples had carried away the
body. As to the birth, two contradictory currents of
opinion may be traced ; but as both responded to the
needs of the Christian conscience, they were reconciled
as well as they might be. On the one hand, it was
necessary that Jesus should be the descendant of
David ; on the other, he might not be conceived under
the ordinary conditions of humanity. It was not
natural that he who had never lived as other men
lived should be born as other men were born. The
descent from David was established by a genealogy
which showed Joseph as of the stock of David. That
was scarcely satisfactory, in view of the hypothesis
of the supernatural conception, according to which
Joseph and his supposed ancestors had nothing to do
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 97
with the birth of Jesus. It was Mary whom it was
necessary to attach to the royal family. Now no
attempt was made in the first century to do this,
doubtless because the genealogies had been fixed
before it was seriously pretended that Jesus was born
otherwise than as the result of the lawful union of
the two sexes, and no one denied to Joseph his rights
to a real paternity. The Gospel of the Hebrews at
least at the period at which we now are always
described Jesus as the son of Joseph and Mary ;
the Holy Spirit in the conception of this Gospel was
for Jesus the Messiah (a distinct personage from the
man Jesus) a mother, not a father. The Gospel of
Matthew, on the contrary, propounds an altogether
contradictory combination. Jesus, with him, is the
son of David through Joseph, who is not his father.
The author evades this difficulty with an extreme
naivete. An angel comes to relieve the mind of
Joseph from suspicions which in a case so peculiar
he had a right to entertain.
The genealogy which we read in the Gospel ascribed
to Matthew is certainly not the work of the author of
that Gospel. He has taken it from some previous
document. Was it in the Gospel of the Hebrews
itself? It is doubtful. A large proportion of the
Hebrews of Syria kept always a text in which such
genealogies did not figure ; but also certain Nazarene
manuscripts of very ancient date presented by way of
preface a sepher toledoth. The turn of the genealogy
of Matthew is Hebrew ; the transcriptions of the
proper names are not those of the Septuagint. We
have seen, besides, that the genealogies were probably
the work of the kinsmen of Jesus, retired to Batanea
and speaking Hebrew. What is certain is that the
work of the genealogies was not executed with much
unity or much authority, for two altogether discordant
systems of connecting Joseph with the last known
persons of the line of David have come down to us.
98 THE GOSPELS AND
It is not impossible that the names of the father and
grandfather of Joseph were known. After that, from
Zerubbabel to Joseph, all has been fabricated. As
after the captivity the Biblical writings give no more
genealogies, the author imagines the period to have
been shorter than it really was, and puts in too few
generations. From Zerubbabel to David, Parali-
pomenes are made use of, not without sundry inac
curacies and failures of memory. Genesis, the Book of
Ruth, the Paralipomenes, have furnished the body as
far as David. A singular preoccupation of the author
of the genealogy contained in Matthew has been to
mention, by exceptional privilege, or even to introduce
by force, in the ascending line of Jesus, four women
who were sinners, faithless to a point which a Pharisee
might well criticise Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bath-
sheba. It was an invitation to sinners never to despair
of entering into the family of the elect. The genealogy
of Matthew gives also to Jesus as ancestors the kings
of Judah, descendants of David, beginning with Solo
mon, but soon, not wishing that that genealogy should
borrow too much from profane glory, Jesus is con
nected with David by a little known son, Nathan, and
by a line parallel to that of the kings of Judah.
For the rest, the supernatural connexion gained
every day so much in importance, that the question
of the father and of the ancestors of Jesus after the
flesh, became in some sort a secondary matter. It
was believed to have been prophesied by Isaiah in a
passage which is ill-rendered in the Septuagint, that
Christ should be born of a Virgin. The Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of God, had done all. Joseph in reality
appears to have been an old man when Jesus was
born. Mary, who appears to have been his second
wife, might be very young. This contrast rendered
the idea of the miracle easy. Certainly the legend
would not have come into existence without that ;
as, moreover, the myth was elaborated in the midst
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 99
of a people who had known the family of Jesus,
such a circumstance as an old man taking a young
wife was not indifferent. A common feature of the
Hebrew histories, is the magnifying of the Divine
power by the very weakness of the instruments
which he employed. Thus came the habit of describ
ing great men as the offspring of parents old or long
childless. The legend of Samuel begot that of John
the Baptist, that of Jesus and that of Mary herself.
On the other hand, this provoked the objections of
ill-wishers. The coarse fable invented by the oppon
ents of Christianity, which made Jesus the fruit of
a scandalous adventure with the soldier Pantheris,
arose out of the Christian narrative without much
difficulty that narrative presenting to the imagina
tion the shocking picture of a birth where the father
had only a false part to play. The fable shows itself
clearly only in the second century ; in the first, how
ever, the Jews appear to have malignantly represented
the birth of Jesus as illegitimate. Perhaps they so
argued from the species of ostentation with which at
the head of the book of the toledoth of Jesus the names
of Tamar, of Rahab, and of Bathsheba were placed,
whilst omitting those of Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah.
The stories of the childhood, ignored by Mark, are
confined by Matthew to the episode of the magi,
linked with the persecution by Herod, and the
Massacre of the Innocents. All this development
appears to be of Syrian origin ; the odious part which
Herod plays, was, without doubt, the invention of
the family of Jesus, refugees in Batanea. The little
group appears, in a word, to have been a source of
hateful calumnies against Herod. The fable about
the infamous origin of his father, contradicted by
Josephus and Nicholas of Damascus, appears to have
come from thence. Herod became the scapegoat of
all Christian grievances. As for the dangers with
which the childhood of Jesus is supposed to have been
100 THE GOSPELS AND
surrounded, they are simply an imitation of the child
hood of Moses, whom a king also desired to slay, and
who was obliged to escape to foreign parts. It hap
pened to Jesus as to all great men. We know nothing
of their childhood, for the simple reason that no one
can predict the future of a child ; we supplement our
imperfect knowledge by anecdotes invented after the
event. Imagination, besides, likes to figure to itself
that the men of Providence have grown in spite of
perils, as the effect of a special protection of Heaven.
A popular story relative to the birth of Augustus,
and various features of Herod s cruelty, might give
rise to the legend of the massacre of the children of
Bethlehem.
Mark, in his singularly naive narrative, has eccentri
cities, rudenesses, passages not very easy of explana
tion and open to much objection. Matthew proceeds
by retouchings and extenuations of detail. Compare,
for example, Mark iii. 31-35 with Matthew xii. 46-50.
The second editor gets rid of the idea that the relations
of Jesus thought him mad, and wished to put him
under restraint. The astonishing simplicity of Mark
vi. 5, " He could do there no mighty work, save that
he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed
them," is softened in Matthew xiii. 58, " And he did
not many mighty works there, because of their un
belief." The strange paradox of Mark, " Verily I say
unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or
brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or
children or lands, for my sake, and the gospel s, but
he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time,
houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and
children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the
world to come eternal life," becomes in Matthew,
" And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or
lands, for my name s sake, shall receive an hundredfold,
and shall inherit everlasting life." The motive assigned
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 101
for the visit of the women to the sepulchre, implying
clearly that they did not expect the resurrection, is
replaced in Matthew by an insignificant expression.
The scribe who interrogates Jesus on the great com
mandment does so in Mark with a good intention. In
the two other Evangelists he does it to tempt Jesus.
The times have advanced : it is no longer to be ad
mitted that a scribe could possibly act without malice.
The episode when the young rich man calls Jesus
"Good Master," and where Jesus reproves him with
the words, "there is none good but God," appeared
scandalous a little later. Matthew settles it in a less
shocking manner. The fashion in which the disciples
are sacrificed in Mark is equally extenuated in
Matthew. Finally, this last is guilty of some inac
curacies, in order to obtain pathetic effects : thus the
wine of the condemned, the institution of which was
really humane, becomes with him a refinement of
cruelty to bring about the fulfilment of a prophecy.
The two lively sallies of Mark are thus effaced ; the
lines of the new Gospel are larger, more correct, more
ideal. The marvellous features are multiplied, but we
should say that there is an attempt to make the mar
vellous more credible. Miracles are less clumsily told ;
certain prolixities are omitted. Thaumaturgic mate
rialism, the use of natural means to produce miracles
characteristic features of Mark s narrative have
almost wholly disappeared in Matthew. Compared
with the Gospel of Mark, that attributed to Matthew
presents corrections of taste and tact. Various inac
curacies are rectified ; details aesthetically weak or
inexplicable are suppressed or cleared up. Mark has
often been considered as the abbreviator of Matthew.
The very reverse is the truth ; only the addition of
the discourses has the effect of extending the abridg
ment considerably beyond the limits of the original.
When we compare the accounts of the demoniac of the
Gergesenes, the paralytic of Capernaum, the daughter
102 THE GOSPELS AND
of Jairus, the woman with the issue of blood, the
epileptic boy, the correctness of our view is apparent.
Often, also, Matthew gathers together, into a single
group, circumstances which in Mark constitute two
episodes. Some stories, which appear at first sight
to be his especial property, are really stripped and
impoverished copies of the longer accounts of Mark.
It is especially with regard to poverty that we
discover in the text of Matthew precautions and un
easiness. Jesus had boldly placed poverty at the head
of the heavenly beatitudes. " Blessed are ye poor,"
was probably the first word which came out of the
Divine mouth, when he began to speak with authority.
The majority of the sentences of Jesus (as happens
always when we wish to give a living form to
thought) lent themselves to misunderstanding ; the
pure Ebionites drew from them subversive con
sequences. The editor of our Gospel adds a word to
prevent certain excesses. The poor in the ordi
nary sense become the "poor in spirit" that is to
say, pious Israelites who play a humble part in the
world, which contrasts with the haughty air of the
great men of the day. In another beatitude, those
who are hungry become those who " hunger and
thirst after righteousness."
The progress of thought is then very visible in
Matthew ; we catch glimpses in him of a crowd of
after thoughts, the intention of parrying certain
objections ; an exaggeration of the symbolical pre
tensions. The story of the Temptation in the
Wilderness has developed itself and has changed
its character ; the passion is enriched with some
beautiful details ; Jesus speaks of his " Church " as
of a body already constituted and founded under the
primacy of Peter. The formula of baptism is en
larged, and comprehends, under a form sufficiently
syncretic, the three sacramental words of the theology
of the time, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 103
The germ of the doctrine of the Trinity is thus
deposited in a corner of the sacred page, and will
become fertile. The Apocalyptic discourse attributed
to Jesus, with reference to the war in Judea, is rather
strengthened and particularised than weakened. We
shall soon see Luke employing all his art to extenu
ate whatever was embarrassing in these daring pre
dictions of an end that had not come.
CHAPTER XI.
SECRET OF THE BEAUTIES OF THE GOSPEL.
WHAT is chiefly remarkable in the new Gospel is an
immense literary progress. The general effect is that
of a fairy palace constructed wholly of luminous stones.
An exquisite vagueness in the transitions and the
chronological relations gives to this divine composition
the light attractiveness of a child s story. " At that
hour," " at that time," " that day," " it happened that,"
and a crowd of other formulae which look precise, but
which are nothing of the kind, hold the narrative
as it were in suspense between earth and heaven.
Thanks to the uncertainty of the time, the Gospel
story only touches the reality. An airy genius whom
one touches, one embraces, but who never strikes
against the pebbles in the road, speaks to us and en
chants us. We do not stop to ask if he is certain of
what he tells us. He doubts nothing, and he knows
nothing. There is an analogous charm in the affirma
tion of a woman who subjugates us while she makes
us smile. It is in literature what a picture of a child
by Correggio or a Virgin of sixteen by Raphael is in
art.
104 THE GOSPELS AND
The language is of the same character and perfectly
appropriate to the subject. By a veritable tour de
force the clear and childlike method of the Hebrew
narrative, the fine and exquisite stamp of the Hebrew
proverbs, have been translated into a Hellenic dialect,
correct enough as far as grammatical forms are con
cerned, but in which the old learned syntax is com
pletely cast aside. It has been remarked that the
Gospels were the first books written in the Greek of
everyday life. The Greek of antiquity is there, in
effect, modified in the analytical sense of modern
languages. The Hellenist cannot but admit that the
language is commonplace and weak ; he is certain
that from the classical point of view the Gospel has
neither style, nor plan, nor beauty ; but it is the
masterpiece of popular literature, and in one sense the
most ancient popular book that has been written.
That half-articulate language has the additional advan
tage of preserving its character in different versions,
so that for such writings the translation is as valuable
as the original.
This simplicity of form ought to give rise to no
illusion. The word " truth " has not the same signifi
cance for the Oriental as for ourselves. The Oriental
tells with a bewitching candour and with the accent
of a witness, a crowd of things which he has not seen
and about which he is by no means certain. The
fantastic tales of the Exodus from Egypt, which are
told in Jewish families during the Feast of the Pass
over, deceive nobody, yet none the less they enchant
those who listen to them. Every year the scenic re
presentations by which they commemorate the martyr
dom of the sons of Ali in Persia, are enriched with
some new invention designed to render the victims
more interesting and their murderers more hateful.
There is more passion in these episodes than anyone
might think possible. It is the especial quality of the
Oriental agada to touch most profoundly those who
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 105
best know how fictitious it is. It is its triumph to
have created such a masterpiece that all the world is
deceived by it, and for want of knowing laws of this
kind the credulous West has accepted as infallible
truth the recital of facts which no human eye has
ever seen.
The especial quality of a literature of logia, of
hadith, is to go on increasing. After the death of
Mohammed the number of words which " the people of
the Bench " attributed to him was not to be counted.
It was the same with Jesus. To the charming
apologues which he had really pronounced, others
were added conceived in the same style, which it is
very difficult to distinguish from the genuine. The
ideas of the time ^expressed themselves especially in
those seven admirable parables of the kingdom of
God, where all the innocent rivalries of the golden age
of Christianity have left their traces. Some persons
were aggrieved by the low rank of those who entered
the Church ; the doors of the churches of St Paul
opening with both leaves, appeared to them a scandal ;
they wanted a selection, a preliminary examination, a
censorship. The Shamaites in like manner desired
that no man should be admitted to Jewish teaching
unless he were intelligent, modest, of good family, and
rich. To these exigent persons an answer was given
in the shape of a parable of a man who prepared a
dinner, and who, in the absence of the regularly
invited guests, invited the lame, the vagabonds, and
the beggars ; or of a fisherman whose net gathered of
every kind, both bad and good, the choice being made
afterwards. The eminent place which Paul, once one
of the enemies of Jesus, one of the last comers to the
Gospel work, occupied amongst the faithful of these
early days, excited murmurs. This was the occasion
of the workers who were engaged at the eleventh
hour, and were rewarded equally with those who had
borne the burden and heat of the dav. A statement of
106 THE GOSPELS AND
Jesus, "the last shall be first and the first shall be
last," had furnished the text. The owner of a vine
yard goes out at various hours of the day to hire
labourers. He takes all that he can find, and in the
evening the last comers who had worked but a single
hour, are paid exactly as those who had toiled the
whole day through. The struggle of two generations
of Christians is seen here very clearly. When the con
verted appeared to say with sadness that the places
were taken, and that they had to fill a secondary
part, this beautiful parable was quoted to them, from
which it was evident that they had no reason to
envy the ancients.
The parable of the tares also signifies in its way the
mixed composition of the kingdom, wherein Satan
himself has sometimes power to cast in a few grains.
The mustard seed expresses its future greatness ; the
leaven its fermentative force ; the hidden treasure and
the pearl of great price ; the thread, its success, mixed
with perils in the future. " The first shall be last,"
"many are called but few chosen," such were the
maxims which they especially loved to repeat. The
expectation of Jesus above all inspired living and
strong comparisons. The image of the thief in the
night, the lightning which shines from the east to the
west, of the fig tree whose young shoots announce the
approach of summer, filled all minds. They repeated
the charming fable of the wise and the foolish virgins,
masterpieces of simplicity, of art, of wit, of subtlety.
Both awaited the bridegroom, but as he was long in
coming, they all slumbered. Then in the middle of
the night was heard the cry, " Behold him ! Behold
him : " The wise virgins, who had carried oil in their
flasks, soon lighted their lamps, but the foolish were
confounded. There was no place for them at the
banquet.
We do not say that these exquisite fragments are not
the work of Jesus. The great difficulty of a history
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 107
of the origins of Christianity is to distinguish in the
Gospels between the part that comes directly from
Jesus, and the part which is inspired by his spirit.
Jesus having written nothing, and the editors of the
Gospels having handed down to us pell-mell his own
authentic words and those which have been attributed
to him, there is no critic sufficiently subtle to work in
such a case with absolute certainty. The life of Jesus,
and the history of the compilation of the Gospels, are
two subjects which are so interwoven that the boundary
between them must be left undefined, at the risk of
appearing to contradict oneself. In reality, this contra
diction is of small consequence. Jesus is the veritable
creator of the Gospel ; Jesus did all, even what has
been only attributed to him ; his legend and himself
are inseparable ; he was so identified with his idea
that his idea became himself, absorbed him, made his
biography what it ought to be. There was in him
what theologians call " communication of the idioms."
The same communication exists between the first and
last book but one of this history. If that is a defect, it
is a defect springing out of the nature of the subject,
and we have thought it would be a mark of truth not
to seek to avoid it. What is striking in any case is
the original physiognomy of these narratives. What
ever may be the date of their compilation, they are
truly Galilean flowers blossoming beneath the sacred
feet of the divine dreamer.
The Apostolic instructions, such as our Gospel pre
sents them, appear in some respects to proceed from
the ideal of the Apostle formed upon the model of
Paul. The impression left by the life of the great
missionary had been profound. Many apostles had
already suffered martyrdom for having carried to the
people the appeals of Jesus. The Christian preacher
was imagined as appearing before kings, before the
highest tribunals, and proclaiming Christ. The first
principle of this apostolic eloquence was not to prepare
108 THE GOSPELS AND
the discourses. The Holy Ghost would at the moment
put into the mind of the preacher what he ought to
say. In travelling, no provision, no money, not even
a scrip, not even a change of garments, not even a staff.
The workman deserved his daily bread. When the
apostolic missionary entered into a house he might
remain there without scruple, eating and drinking
what was given to him, without feeling himself obliged
to give in return anything but the word and wishes
for health. This was the principle of Paul, but he did
not put it in practice except amongst people of
whom he was altogether sure, as for example with the
woman of Philippi. Like Paul, the apostolic traveller
was guarded in the dangers of the way by a Divine
protection ; he played with serpents, poisons did not.
affect him. His lot will be the hatred of the world,
persecution. . . . Tradition always exaggerates the
primitive feature. It is in some sort a necessity of
the memory, the mind retaining better strongly
accented and hyperbolical words than measured sen
tences. Jesus had too profound a knowledge of the
souls of men not to know that rigour and exigence are
the best means of gaining them and keeping them
under the yoke. We do not, however, believe that he
ever went to the excess which has been attributed to
him, and the sombre fire which animates the apostolic
instructions, appears to us, in part, a reflection of the
feverish ardour of Paul.
The author of the Gospel according to Matthew
takes no decisive side in the great questions which
divided the Church. He is neither an exclusive Jew
after the manner of James, nor a lax Jew after the
fashion of Paul. He feels the necessity for attaching
the Church to Peter, and insists upon the prerogative
of this last. On the other hand, he allows certain
shades of ill will to appear against the family of Jesus
and against the first Christian generation. He sup
presses, in particular, in the list of the appearances of
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 109
Jesus after the Resurrection, the part played by James,
whom the disciples of Paul held as an avowed enemy.
Opposite theories may find equally valuable support
from him from time to time. At times he speaks of
faith almost in the tone of St Paul s Epistles. The
author accepts from tradition sayings, parables,
miracles, decisions in the most contrary senses, pro
vided they are edifying, without any effort to
reconcile them. Here there is a question of evan
gelising Israel ; there the world. The Canaanitish
woman, received at first with hard words, is then
saved, and a history is begun to prove that Jesus has
only been sent to the house of Israel, which finishes
up with an exaltation of the faith of a Pagan woman.
The centurion of Capernaum finds from the first both
grace and favour. The legal chiefs of the nation have
been more opposed to the Messiah than Pagans such
as the magi, Pilate and Pilate s wife. The Jewish
people pronounce their own curse upon themselves.
They have not chosen to enter the feast of the King
dom of God prepared for them ; the people of the high
way the Gentiles will take their place. The for
mula, " Ye have heard that it was said by them of old
time . . . but I tell you," is placed repeatedly in the
mouth of Jesus. The society to which the author
addresses himself is a society of converted Jews. The
polemic against the unconverted Jews occupies him
much. His quotations of the prophetic texts, as well
as of a certain number of circumstances related by
him, refer to the assaults which the faithful had to
submit to on the part of the orthodox majority, and
especially to the great objection of these official repre
sentatives of the nation to believe in the Messianic
character of Jesus.
The Gospel of St Matthew, like almost all fine com
positions, was the work of a conscience in some sort
double. The author is at once Jew and Christian;
the new faith has not killed the old, nor has it taken
110 THE GOSPELS AND
any of its poetry from it. He loves two things at the
same moment. The spectator enjoys the struggle with
out discomfort. Charming state to be in, without as
yet anything being determined. Exquisite transition,
excellent for art, where a conscience is a peaceable field
of battle upon which opposing parties contend without
either being overthrown ! Although the pretended
Matthew speaks of the Jews in the third person and
as though they were strangers, his spirit, his apology,
his Messianism, his exegesis, his piety, are essentially
those of a Jew. Jerusalem is for him essentially " the
holy city," "the holy place." Missions are in his eyes
the appanage of the Twelve ; he does not associate St
Paul with them, and he certainly does not accord to
this last a special vocation, although the apostolic in
structions such as he gives them contain more than
one feature drawn from the life of the great preacher
of the Gentiles. His aversion to the Pharisees does
not prevent him from admitting the authority of
Judaism. Christianity is with him like a newly-
blown flower, which still bears the envelope of the
bud from which it has escaped.
In this lay one of his strong points. The supreme
ability in the work of conciliation is to deny and affirm
at the same moment, to practise the Ama tanquam
oswrus of the sage of antiquity. Paul suppresses all
Judaism, and even all religion, to replace everything
by Jesus. The Gospels hesitate, and remain in a much
more delicate half-light ? Does the Law still exist ?
Yes, and no. Jesus fulfilled it and destroyed it. The
Sabbath ? He suppressed and maintained it. The
Jewish ceremonies ? He observes them, and will not
allow of their being held to. Every religious reformer
has to observe this rule ; men are not discharged from
a burden impossible to be borne, except he takes it for
himself without reserve or softening. The contraction
was everywhere. When the Talmud has quoted on
the same line opinions which exclude each other
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. Ill
absolutely, it finishes by this formula : " And all these
opinions are the word of life." The anecdote of the
Canaanitish woman is the true image at this moment
of Christianity. She prays. " I am not sent but to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel," Jesus answers to
her. She approaches, and worships him. " It is not
meet to take the children s bread and to cast it to the
dogs." " Truth, Lord, but the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from the Master s table." " Oh, woman,
great is thy faith ; be it unto thee even as thou wilt."
The converted Pagan finished by carrying off, by force
of humility, and on condition of submitting first to the
ill reception of an aristocracy which wished to be
flattered and solicited, all that she desired.
Such a state of mind, to say the truth, agreed only
with a single kind of hatred the hatred of the
Pharisee, the official Jew. The Pharisee, or, more pro
perly, the hypocrite (for the word was now used in an
abusive sense, just as with us the name of Jesuit is
applied to a host of people who form no part of the
society founded by Loyola), had to appear especially
guilty, opposed in everything to Jesus. Our Gospel
groups into a single invective, full of virulence, all the
discourses which Jesus pronounced at various times
against the Pharisees. The author undoubtedly took
this fragment from some previous collection which had
not the ordinary form. Jesus is there accredited with
having made numerous journeys to Jerusalem; the
punishment of the Pharisees is predicted in a vague
Fashion, which carries us back to the date before the
revolution in Judea.
From all this results a Gospel infinitely superior in
beauty to that of Mark, but of a much smaller
historical value. Mark remains, as far as facts are
concerned, the only authentic record of the life of
Jesus. The narratives which the pseudo-Matthew
adds to those of Mark are only legends ; the modifica
tions which he applies to the tales of Mark are only
112 THE GOSPELS AND
methods of hiding certain difficulties. The assimila
tion of the elements which the author takes from
Mark is effected in the roughest way ; the digestion
if such an expression may be permitted is not com
pleted ; the morsels are left whole, so that they may
still be recognised. In this connection Luke will
introduce great improvements. But what gives value
to the work attributed to Matthew, are the discourses
attributed to Jesus, preserved with an extreme fidelity,
and probably in the relative order in which they were
first written.
This was more important than biographical exacti
tude, and the Gospel of Matthew, all things considered,
is the most important book of Christianity the most
important book that has ever been written. It was
not without reason that in the classification of the
writings of the new Bible it received the first place.
The biography of a great man is a part of his work.
St Louis would not be what he is in the conscience of
humanity, without Joinville. The life of Spinoza, by
Colerus, is the finest of Spinoza s works. Epictetus
owes almost as much to Arrian, Socrates to Plato and
to Xenophon. Jesus in the same way is in part made
by the Gospel. In this sense, the compilation of the
Gospels is, next to the personal action of Jesus, the
leading fact of the history of the origins of Chris
tianity ; I will even add of the history of humanity.
The habitual reading of the world is a book where
the priest is always in fault, where respectable people
are always hypocrites, where the lay authorities are
always scoundrels, and where all the rich are damned.
This book the most revolutionary and dangerous ever
written the Roman Church has prudently put aside ;
but it has not been able to prevent it from bearing
fruit. Malevolent towards the priesthood, contemptu
ous of austerity, indulgent towards the loose liver of
good heart, the Gospels have been the perpetual night
mare of the hypocrite. The man of the Gospel has
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENE RATION. 113
been an opponent of pedantic theology, of hierarchical
haughtiness, of the ecclesiastical spirit such as the
centuries have made it. The Middle Ages burned it.
In our days, the great invective of the twenty-third
chapter of St Matthew against the Pharisees is still a
sanguinary satire on those who cover themselves with
the name of Jesus, and whom Jesus, if he were to
return to this world, would drive out with scourges.
Where was the Gospel of St Matthew written ?
Everything appears to indicate that it was in Syria,
for a Jewish circle which knew scarcely anything
but Greek, but which had some idea of Hebrew. The
author makes use of the original Gospels written in
Hebrew; yet it is doubtful whether the original
Hebrew of the Gospel texts ever went out of Syria. In
five or six cases, Mark had preserved little Aramaic
phrases uttered by Jesus ; the pseudo-Matthew effaces
all of them with but one exception. The character
of the traditions proper to our evangelist is exclu
sively Galilean. According to him, all the appearances
of Jesus after the Resurrection took place in Galilee.
His first readers appear to have been Syrians. He
gives none of those explanations of customs and those
topographical notes which are to be found in Mark.
On the contrary, there are details which, meaningless
at Rome, were interesting in the East. A Greek
Gospel appeared a precious thing; but the gaps in
that of Mark were striking, and they were filled up.
The Gospel which resulted from these additions came
in time to Rome. Hence the explanation of Luke s
ignorance of it in that city about 95.
Hence, also, the explanation of the reasons why to
exalt the new work and to oppose to the name of Mark
that of a superior authority, the text was attributed to
the Apostle Matthew. Matthew was a Judeo-Chris-
tian apostle, living an ascetic life like that of James,
abstaining from flesh, and living only upon vegetables
and the shoots of trees. Perhaps his former occupa-
114 THE GOSPELS AND
tion of publican gave rise to the idea that, accustomed
to writing, he more than anyone else was likely to
record the facts of which he was credited with hav
ing been a witness. Certainly Matthew was not the
editor of the work which bears his name. The Apostle
had long been dead when the Gospel was composed,
and the book, besides, absolutely could not have been
the work of such an author. Never was book so little
that of an eye-witness. How, if our Gospel were the
work of an apostle, could it possibly have been so
defective in all that concerns the public life of Jesus ?
Perhaps the Hebrew Gospel with whicli the author
completed that of Mark, bore the name of Matthew.
Perhaps the collection of Logia bore that name. The
addition of the Logia being what gave character to
the new Gospel, the name of the apostle guaranteeing
these Logia may have been preserved to designate the
author of the work which drew its chief value from
these additions. All that is doubtful. Papias believes
the work to be really that of Matthew, but after fifty
or sixty years the means of solving so complicated a
question must have been wanting.
What is certain, in any case, is that the work attri
buted to Matthew had not the authority which its
title would lead one to suppose, and was not accepted
as final. There have been many similar attempts
which are no longer in existence. The mere name of
an apostle was not enough to recommend a work of
this kind. Luke, who was not an apostle, and whom
we shall soon see resuming the attempt at a Gospel
embodying and superseding the others, was, in all
probability, ignorant of the existence of that said to
be according to Matthew.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 115
CHAPTER XII.
THE CHRISTIANS OF THE FLAVlA FAMILY FLAVIUS
JOSEPHUS.
THE fatal law of Csesarism fulfilled itself. The legiti
mate king improves as his reign grows older : the
Ca3sar begins well, and finishes ill. Every year was
marked in Domitian by the progress of evil passions.
The man had always been perverse. His ingratitude
towards his father and his eldest brother was some
thing abominable, but his first government was not
that of a bad sovereign. It was only by degrees that
the sombre jealousy of all merit, the refined perfidy,
the black malice which were ingrained in his nature,
disclosed themselves. Tiberius had been very cruel,
but this was through a sort of philosophic rage against
humanity which was not without its grandeur, and
which did not prevent him from being in some respects
the most intelligent man of his time. Caligula was a
melancholy buffoon, at once grotesque and terrible,
but amusing, and not very dangerous to those who
did not approach him. Under the reign of that in
carnation of satanic irony who called himself Nero,
a sort of stupor held the world in suspense; people
had the consciousness of assisting at an unprecedented
crisis, at the definitive struggle between good and
evil. After his death there was a breathing space ;
evil appeared to be chained up ; the perversity of the
century seemed to be softened. It is easy to imagine
the horror which seized on all honest minds when they
saw " the Beast " revived ; when they recognised that
the abnegation of all the honourable men in the
Empire had served only to hand over the world to a
sovereign much more worthy of execration than the
monsters whom they believed relegated to the souvenirs
of the past.
116 THE GOSPELS AND
Domitian was probably the wickedest man who
ever lived. Commodus is more odious, for he was the
son of an admirable father ; but Commodus is a sort
of brute ; Domitian is a man of strong sense, and of a
calculating wickedness. He had not the excuse of
madness ; his head was perfectly sound, cold, and clear.
He was a serious and logical politician. He had no
imagination, and if at a certain period of his life he
dabbled somewhat in literature, and made fairly good
verses, it was out of affectation, and in order to appear
a stranger to business; soon he renounced it and
thought no more of it. He did not love the arts;
music found him and left him indifferent ; his melan
choly temperament rejoiced only in solitude. He was
seen walking alone for hours ; his followers were then
sure to see the breaking out of some perverse scheme.
Cruel without disguise, he smiled almost in the act of
murder. His base extraction constantly reappeared.
The Caesars of the House of Augustus, prodigal and
greedy of glory, are bad, often absurd, rarely vulgar.
Domitian is the tradesman of crime: he makes a
profit of it. Not rich, he makes money everywhere,
and pushes taxation to its last limits. His sinister
face never knew the mad laugh of Caligula. Nero, a
very literary tyrant, always engaged in making the
world love and admire him, heard raillery and pro
voked it. Domitian had nothing burlesque about him.
He did not lend himself to ridicule ; he was too tragic.
His manners were no better than those of the son of
Agrippina, but to infamy he joined a sly egotism, a
hypocritical affectation of severity, the air of a rigid
censor (sanctissimus censor) all which things were
only pretexts for destroying the innocent. The tone
of austere virtue which his flatterers assume is
nauseous in the extreme. Martial, Statius, Quintilian,
when they wished to give him the title which he
coveted the most, bestowed on him that of Saviour of
the gods, and Restorer of morals.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 117
Nero s vanity was not less than that which impelled
him to so many pitiable freaks, and it was much less
innocent. His false triumphs, his pretended victories,
his monuments full of lying adulation, his accumu
lated consulates, were something sickening, much
more irritating than the eighteen hundred crowns of
Nero.
The other tyrannies which had afflicted Rome were
much less wise. His was administrative, meticulous,
organised. The tyrant himself played the part of
chief of the police and prosecuting counsel. It was
a juridical reign of terror. The proceedings were
conducted with the burlesque legality of the Revo
lutionary Tribunal. Flavius Sabinus, cousin of the
Emperor, was put to death because of a mistake of
the crier who had proclaimed him Emperor instead of
Consul; a Greek historian, for certain images which
appeared obscure : all the copyists were crucified. A
distinguished Roman was killed because he loved to
recite the harangues of Livy, possessed certain maps,
and had given to two slaves the names of Mago and
of Hannibal ; a highly-esteemed soldier, Sallustius
Lucullus, perished for having suffered his name to be
given to some lances of a new model which he had
invented. Never had the trade of informer thriven
so greatly ; tempters and spies abounded everywhere.
The mad faith of the Emperor in astrologers doubled
the danger. The instruments of Caligula and Nero
had been vile Orientals, strangers to Roman society,
and satisfied when they were rich. The informers of
Domitian men like Tonquier Tinville, sinister and
ghostly struck a sure blow. The Emperor concerted
with the accusers and the false witnesses what they
were to say; he then was himself present at the
tortures, diverting himself with the pallor painted in
all faces, and appearing to count the groans extorted
by suffering. Nero spared himself the sight of the
crimes he commanded ; Domitian insisted on seeing
118 THE GOSPELS AND
everything. He had nameless refinements of cruelty.
His mind was so perverse that he was offended equally
by flattery and by its absence ; his suspicion and
lealousy were unbounded. Every worthy man, every
benevolent man, had him for a rival. Nero at least
found them only amongst the singers, and did not
regard every statesman, every military superior, as an
enemy.
The silence during this time was frightful. The
Senate passed some years in a mournful stupor.
What was most terrible was that there seemed to be
no way out. The Emperor was thirty-six. The
feverish outburst of evil which had been observed up
to that time had been short ; it was felt that they
were crises and that they could not last. This time
there was no reason for their coming to an end. The
army was content; the people were indifferent.
Domitian, it is true, never attained the popularity of
Nero ; and in the year 88 an impostor thought he saw
a chance of dethroning him, by presenting himself as
the adored master who had given the people such days
of enjoyment. Nevertheless, too much had not been
lost. The spectacles were as monstrous as they had
ever been. The Flavian amphitheatre (the Coliseum)
inaugurated under Titus, had even made progress in
the ignoble art of amusing the people. No danger
then on that side. He, however, read only the
Memoirs of Tiberius. He despised the familiarity
which his father Vespasian had encouraged ; he
treated as childishness the good nature of his brother
Titus, and the delusion of governing humanity by
making himself beloved, under which he laboured.
He pretended to know better than anybody the
requirements of a power without constitution, obliged
to defend itself, to refound itself every clay.
It was felt, in short, that there was a political reason
for these horrors, which was not the mere caprice of a
lunatic. The hideous image of the new sovereignty
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 119
such as the necessities of the times had made it, sus
picious, fearing everything from everybody, head of
Medusa which froze with terror, appeared in this
odious mask all splashed with blood, with which the
cunning terrorist seemed to have shielded his face
against all modesty.
It was principally upon his own house that his fury
was spent. Almost all his cousins or nephews perished.
Everything that recalled Titus to him exasperated
him. That singular family which had none of the
prejudice, aristocratic coolness, profound scepticism of
the high Roman aristocracy, offered strange contrasts.
Frightful tragedies were played in it. What a fate,
for example, was that of Julia Sabina, the daughter of
Titus, sinking from crime to crime, until she finished,
like the heroine of a vulgar romance, in the anguish
of an abortion. So much perversity provoked strange
reactions. The tender and sentimental parts of the
nature of Titus reappeared amongst some members of
the family, especially in the branch of Flavius Sabinus,
the brother of Vespasian, Flavius Sabinus, who was
long Prefect of Rome, and particularly in 64, might
already know the Christians ; he was a gentle, humane
man, and one who was already reproached with " poor
spiritedness." For Roman ferocity such a word was
equivalent to humanity. The numerous Jews who
were familiar with the Flavian family, found, especi
ally on this side, an audience already prepared and
attentive.
It is, in short, not to be denied that Christian or
Judeo-Christian ideas penetrated the Imperial family,
especially in its collateral branch. Flavius Clemens,
son of Flavius Sabinus, and consequently eousin-gernian
to Domitian, had married Flavia Domitilla, his second
cousin, daughter of another Flavia Domitilla, herself
the daughter of Vespasian, who had died before the
accession of her father to the Empire. By means
which are unknown to us, but probably arising out of
120 THE GOSPELS AND
the relations of the Flavian family with the Jews,
Clemens and Domitilla adopted Jewish customs, that
is to say, of course, that mitigated form of Judaism
which differed from Christianity only by the import
ance attached to the part of Jesus. The Judaism of
the proselytes, confined to the Noachian precepts, was
precisely tha.t preached by Josephus, the client of the
Flavian family. That it was which was represented
as having been settled by the agreement of all the
apostles at Jerusalem. Clemens allowed himself to be
seduced by it. Perhaps Domitilla went further, and
merited the name of Christian. Nothing, however,
ought to be exaggerated. Flavius Clemens and Flavia
Domitilla do not appear to have been veritable members
of the Church of Rome. Like so many other distin
guished Romans, they felt the emptiness of the official
worship, the insufficiency of the moral law which
sprang out of Paganism, the repulsive hideousness of
the manners and the society of the times. The charm
of the Judeo-Christian ideas wrought upon them.
They recognised from that side life and the future ;
but, without doubt, they were not ostensibly Christians.
We shall see later Flavia Domitilla acting rather as a
Roman matron than as a Christian woman, and not
hesitating at the assassination of a tyrant. The single
fact of accepting the consulate was for Clemens to
accept the obligation of essentially idolatrous sacrifices
and ceremonies. Clemens was the second person in
the State. He had two sons whom Domitian had
named as his successors, and to whom he had already
given the names of Vespasian and Domitian. The
education of these boys was entrusted to one of the
most upright men of the time, Quintilian the rhetori
cian, to whom Clemens accorded the honorary insig
nia of the consulate. Now Quintilian regarded with
equal horror the ideas of the Jews and those of the
Republicans. Side by side with the Gracchi he placed
" the author of the Jewish superstition " amongst the
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 121
most fatal revolutionaries. Was Quintilian thinking
of Moses or of Jesus ? Perhaps he scarcely knew
himself. " Jewish superstition " was still the generic
title which comprehended both Jews and Christians.
Christians were not furthermore the only people who
lived the Jewish life without submitting to circum
cision. Many of those who were attracted by Mosaism
confined themselves to the observance of the Sabbath.
A similar purity of life, a similar horror of polythe
ism, united all these groups of pious men upon whom
the verdict of superficial Pagans was, " they live the
Jewish life."
If the family of Clemens were Christians, it must be
owned that they were Christians of a very undecided
kind. What the public saw of the conversion of these
two illustrious personages was a very small matter.
The distracted world which surrounded them could
not well say whether they were Jews or Christians.
Changes of this kind are recognised only by two
symptoms, first, an ill-concealed aversion from the
national religion, an estrangement from all apparent
rites, on the part of those who are supposed to hold to
the secret worship of an intangible, unnameable God ;
in the second place, an apparent indolence, a total
abandonment of the duties and honours of civic life
inseparable from idolatry. A taste for solitude, a
search after a peaceable and retired life, an aversion for
the theatres, for the shows and for the cruel scenes
which Roman life offered at every step, fraternal rela
tions with persons of humble station, by no means
inclined to the military life (for which the Romans
despised them), indifference to public business, as
frivolous matters to those who looked for the speedy
coming of Christ, meditative habits, a spirit of detach
ment all this the Romans described by the single
word ignavia. According to the ideas of the time,
everyone ought to have as much ambition as com
ported with his birth and fortune. The man of high
122 THE GOSPELS AND
rank who ceased to take an interest in the struggle of
life, who feared bloodshed, who assumed a gentle and
humane air, was an idle and degraded man incapable
of any enterprise. Impious and cowardly such were
the adjectives applied to him, which in a still vigorous
state of society must infallibly result in destroying
him.
Clemens and Domitilla were not, moreover, the only
ones whom the blast of the reign of Domitian inclined
towards Christianity. The terror and the sadness of
the times crushed souls. Many persons of the Roman
aristocracy lent an ear to teaching, and which, in the
midst of the night through which they were passing,
showed the pure heaven of an ideal kingdom. The
world was so dark, so wicked! Never, besides, had
the Jewish propaganda been so active. Perhaps we
must refer to the time of the conversion of a Roman
lady, Veturia Paulla, who, being converted at the age
of 70, took the name of Sara, and was mother of the
synagogues of the Campus Martius and of Volumnus,
for sixteen years longer. A great part of the move
ment in these immense suburbs of Rome, where seethed
an immense population, far greater in number than
the aristocratic society enclosed in the circuit of
Servius Tullius, came from the sons of Israel. Con
fined to a spot near the Capenian Gate by the side
of the unwholesome stream of the fountain of Egeria,
they lived there, begging, carrying on disreputable
trades, the art of the gipsies, telling fortunes, levying
contributions on visitors to the wood of Egeria, which
they rented. The impression produced upon the public
mind by that strange race was more lively than ever.
" He to whom fate has given for father an observer of
the Sabbath, not contented with adoring the God of
heaven, and with putting on the same level the flesh
of pigs and the flesh of human beings, soon hurries to
get rid of his foreskin. Accustomed to despise the
Roman law, he studies and observes, with trembling,
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 123
the Jewish law which Moses has deposited in a myste
rious volume. There he learns not to show the way
save to him who practises the same religion with him
self, and when one asks him, where is the fountain ?
to point out the road to the circumcised only. The
fault is in the father who adopted the seventh day of
rest, and forbade on that day all the acts of life."
(Juv. xiv.)
Saturday, in fact, notwithstanding all the bad
temper of the true Romans, was not in Rome in the
least like other days. The world of little tradesmen
who on other days filled the public places, seemed to
have sunk into the earth. That irregularity, yet more
than their easily recognisable type, drew attention, and
made those eccentric foreigners the object of the
gossip of the idle.
The Jews suffered like the rest of the world from
the hardness of the times. The greed of Domitian
made all taxation excessive, especially the poll tax,
called the fiscus Judawus, to which the Jews were
subject. Until this time the tribute was exacted only
from those who avowed themselves to be Jews. Many
disguised their origin and did not pay. To prevent
that tolerance, the truth was sought in the most odious
way. Suetonius remembers having seen in his youth
an old man of ninety stripped before a numerous
audience to see if he were not circumcised. These
rigours brought about, as a consequence, the practice,
in a great number of instances, of the operation of
blistering ; the number of recutiti at this date is very
considerable. Such inquiries, on the other hand,
brought the Roman authorities to a discovery which
astonished them : it was that there were people who
were living the Jewish life in all ways who were not
circumcised. The treasury decided that that class of
persons, the improfessi, as they were called, should pay
the poll-tax like the circumcised. " The Jewish life,"
and not the circumcision, was thus taxed, and the
124 THE GOSPELS AND
Christians saw themselves subjected to the impost.
The complaints which this abuse called forth moved
even those statesman who had least sympathy with
Jews and Christians ; the liberal were shocked by these
corporeal visitations, these distinctions made by the
state as to the meaning of certain religious denomina
tions, and saw in the suppression of this abuse their
programme for the future.
The vexations introduced by Domitian contributed
greatly to deprive Christianity of its previously un
decided character. By the side of the severe ortho
doxy of the Jewish doctors, and afterwards of those
of Jabneh, there had been until that time in Judaism
schools analogous to Christianity, without being iden
tical with it. Apollos, in the bosom of the Church, was
an example of those inquiring Jews who tried many
sects without adhering resolutely to any one. Josephus
when he wrote for the Romans, reduced his Judaism to
a, kind of Deism, owning that circumcision and the
Jewish practices were good for Jews by race, whilst
the true worship is that which each adopts in full
liberty. Was Flavius Clemens a Christian in the
strict sense of the word ? It may be doubted if he
were. He loved the Jewish life, he practised Jewish
customs, and it was that fact which struck his corn-
temporaries. He went no further, and perhaps he
himself would have been puzzled to say to what class
of Jews he belonged. The matter was not cleared up
when the treasury took it in hand. The circumcision
received on that day a fatal blow. The greed of
Domitian extended the tax on the Jews, the fiscus
Juda/icus, who without being Jews by race, and with
out being circumcised, practised Jewish customs.
Then the categories were marked out : there was the
pure Jew, whose quality was established by physical
inquiry, and the quasi- Jew, the improfessus, who took
nothing from Judaism besides its honest morality and
its purified worship.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 125
The penalties ordained by a special law against the
circumcision of non-Jews contributed to the same
result. The precise date of that law is unknown, but
it certainly appears to be of the period of Flavius.
Every Roman citizen who allowed himself to be cir
cumcised was punished with perpetual exile, and the
loss of all his goods. A master rendered himself liable
to the same penalty if he permitted his slaves to sub
mit to the operation; the doctor who performed it
was punished with death. The Jews who circumcised
their slaves were equally liable to death. That was
thoroughly conformable to the Roman policy, tolerant
towards foreign religions when they kept themselves
within the limits of their own nationalities ; severe
when those religions entered upon the work of the
propaganda. But it is easy to understand how decisive
such measures were in the struggle between the cir
cumcised Jews and the uncircumcised or improfessi.
These last alone could carry on a serious proselytism.
By the law of the Empire, the circumcision was con
demned to go no further than the narrow limits of
the house of Israel.
Agrippa II., and probably Berenice, died about this
time. Their death was an immense loss to the Jewish
colony, which these exalted personages covered by
their credit with Flavius. Josephus, in the midst of
this ardent struggle, doubled his activity. He had the
superficial facility characteristic of the Jew transported
into a civilisation which is foreign to him, of placing
himself with marvellous quickness abreast of the ideas
in the midst of which he finds himself thrown, and of
seeing in what way he can profit by them. Domitian
protected him, but was probably indifferent to his
writings. The Empress Domitia heaped favours on
him. He was, besides, the client of a certain Epaphro-
ditus, a considerable personage, supposed to be identical
with the Epaphroditus of Nero, whom Domitian had
taken into his service. This Epaphroditus was a man
126 THE GOSPELS AND
of a singularly liberal mind, who encouraged historical
studies, and who interested himself in Judaism. Not
knowing Hebrew, and probably not understanding the
Greek version of the Bible very well, he engaged
Josephus to compose a history of the Jewish people.
Josephus received the commission with eagerness. It
fully accorded with the suggestions of his literary
vanity and of his liberal Judaism. The objection
which the Jews made to learned persons imbued with
the beauties of Greek and Roman history, was that
the Jewish people had no history, that the Greeks had
not cared to know it, that good authors never men
tioned its name, that it had never had any connection
with the noble races, and that in its past there were to
be found no such heroic histories as those of Cynegirus
and of the Scaevola. To prove that the Jewish people
were also of a high antiquity, that they possessed the
memory of heroes comparable to those of Greece, that
they had had in the course of ages the finest relations
of people to people, that many learned Greeks had
spoken of them, such was the aim that the protege
of Epaphroditus sought to realise in a vast composi
tion divided into twenty books and entitled "Anti
quities of the Jews." The Bible naturally formed the
basis : Josephus made additions to it, without value as
to the ancient times, since there were no Hebrew docu
ments relating to those times other than those which
we ourselves possess, but which for more modern times
are of the highest interest, since they fill up a gap in
sacred history.
Josephus added to this curious work, in the form of
an appendix, an autobiography, or rather an apology
for his own conduct. His ancient enemies of Galilee
who, rightly or wrongly, called him a traitor, were
still alive and left him no repose. Justus of Tiberius,
writing, from his point of view, the history of the
catastrophe of his country, accused him of falsehood,
and presented his conduct in Galilee in the most odious
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 127
light. We must do Josephus the justice of saying that
he did nothing to injure this dangerous rival, as would
have been easy to him, in view of the favour which he
enjoyed in high places. Josephus, on the other hand,
is weak enough, when he defends himself against the
accusations of Justus, by invoking the official approba
tion of Titus and Agrippa. It is impossible to regret
too much that a writing which would have given us
the history of the war in Judea, from the revolu
tionary point of view, should be totally lost to us.
The fecundity of Josephus was inexhaustible. As
many persons raised doubts as to what he said in his
" Antiquities," and objected that if the Jewish nation
had been as ancient as he represented, the Greek
historians would have spoken of it, he undertook on
this subject a justificatory memoir, which may be
regarded as the first monument of the Jewish and
Christian apology. Already towards the middle of
the second century B.C. Aristobalus, the Jewish peripa-
tician, had maintained that the Greek poets and
philosophers had known the Hebrew writings, and
had borrowed from them all those parts of their
writings which have a monotheistic appearance. To
prove his theory, he forged without scruple passages
from profane authors Homer, Hesiod, Linus which
he pretended were borrowed from the Bible. Josephus
took up the task with more honesty, but as little
critical ability. It was necessary to refute the learned
men who, like Lysimachus of Alexandria, Apollonius
Molon (about a hundred years B.C.), expressed them
selves unfavourably with regard to the Jews. It was
especially necessary to destroy the authority of the
Egyptian scholar Apion, who fifty years before had, it
may be in his history of Egypt, or else in a distinct
work, exhibited an immense amount of learning in
disputing the antiquity of the Jewish religion. In
the eyes of an Egyptian, or of a Greek, that was
quite sufficient to deprive it of all nobility. Apion
128 THE GOSPELS ANl)
had relations with the imperial world of Rome,
Tiberius called him " the cymbal of the world " ; Pliny
thought he had better have been called the tom-tom.
His book might still be read in Rome under the
Flavii.
The science of Apion was that of a vain and
frivolous pedant ; but that which Josephus opposed
to it was scarcely better. Greek erudition was for
him an improvised speciality, since his early educa
tion had been Jewish, and altogether confined to the
law. His book is not, and could not be, anything but
a pleading without criticism ; one feels in every page
the presence of the advocate who cuts his arrow in
any wood. Josephus does not manufacture his texts,
but he takes anything that comes ; the false historians,
the garbled classics of the Alexandrian school ; the
valueless documents accumulated in the book " on the
Jews " which circulated under the name of Alexander
Polyhiston, all are greedily accepted by him ; through
him that suspected literature of the Eupolemes, the
Cleodemes, the so-called Hecatea of Abvera, Demetrius
of Phalera, etc., makes its entrance into science, and
troubles it seriously. The apologists, and the Christian
historians Justin, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius,
Moses of Khorone followed him in this bad path.
The public to whom Josephus addressed himself was
superficial in point of erudition; it was easily con
tented ; the rational culture of the time of the Caesars
had disappeared ; the human mind was rapidly lower
ing its standard, and offered to all charlatanisms an
easy prey.
Such was the literature of the cultivated and liberal
Jews grouped around the principal representatives of
a dynasty liberal in itself and in its origin, but for
the moment devoured by a madman. Josephus formed
endless projects of work. He was fifty-six. With
his style, artificial and chequered with a patchwork
heterogeneous of rags, he seriously thought himself a
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 129
great writer ; he thought he knew Greek, with which
he had only a second-hand acquaintance. He wished
to take the " Wars of the Jews " in hand again ; to
abridge it, to make it the continuation of his
" Antiquities," and to tell all that had happened to the
Jews from the end of the war to the moment of his
writing. He meditated, above all, a philosophical work
in four books upon God and his essence, according to
Jewish ideas, and upon the Mosaic laws, with the object
of rendering account of the prohibitions which they
contain, and which greatly astonished the Pagans.
Death doubtless prevented him from carrying out
these new designs. It is probable that if he had
composed these writings they would have come down
to us as the others have done. Josephus in effect
had a very strange literary destiny. He remained
unknown to the Jewish Talmudic tradition ; but he
was adopted by Christians as one of themselves, and
almost as a sacred writer. His writings complete the
holy history which, reduced to the Biblical documents,
offers only a blank page for many centuries. They
form a sort of commentary on the Gospels, of which
the historical sequence would have been unintelligible
without the information which the Jewish historian
furnishes as to the history of the Herods. They
flattered especially one of the favourite theories of
the Christians, and furnished one of the bases of the
Christian apology, by the account of the siege of
Jerusalem.
One of these ideas, to which Christians held most
strongly, was that Jesus had predicted the ruin of the
rebellious city. What could more strongly prove the
literal accomplishment of that prophecy than the his
tory, told by a Jew, of the unheard-of atrocities which
accompanied the destruction of the Temple? Josephus
became thus a fundamental witness and a supplement
to the Bible. He was read and copied assiduously by
Christians. He made of it, if I may so say, a Christian
I
130 THE GOSPELS AN I)
edition, wherein certain corrections may be permitted
in passages which offended the copyists. These pas
sages, above all, present in this connection doubts
which criticism has not even yet allayed. These are
the passages relative to John the Baptist, to Jesus,
and to James. Certainly it is possible that these pas
sages, at least that relating to Jesus, may be inter
polations made by the Christians in a book which
they had in some sort appropriated. We prefer, how
ever, to believe that in the three places in question he
spoke in effect of John the Baptist, of Jesus, and of
James, and that the labour of the Christian editor, if
he may be so called, was confined to pruning away
from the passage upon Jesus certain clauses, and
modifying some expressions offensive to an orthodox
reader.
The reduced circle of aristocratic proselytes of a
mediocre literary taste, for whom Josephus composed
his book, were doubtless entirely satisfied with it.
The difficulties of the old texts were ably disguised.
Jewish history became as attractive as Greek, sown
with harangues conducted according to the rules of
profane rhetoric. Thanks to a charlatanesque display
of erudition, and to a choice of doubtful or slightly
falsified situations, there was an answer to all objec
tors. A discreet rationalism threw a veil over the too
naive wonders of the ancient Hebrew books ; after
having read the accounts of the greatest miracles, you
might believe them or not at will. For non-Jews
never an insulting word ; provided one is willing to
recognise the historic nobility of the race, Josephus is
satisfied. On every page a gentle philosophy, sym
pathetic with all virtue, treating the ritual precepts
of the Law as binding upon Jews only, and proclaim
ing aloud that every just man has the essential quali
ties necessary for becoming a son of Abraham. A
simple metaphysical and rationalistic Deism, a purely
natural morality, replaces the sombre theology of
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 131
Jehovah. The Bible thus rendered altogether human,
appeared to the deserter of Jotapata to become more
acceptable. He deceived himself. His book, precious
as it is to the student, rises no higher in point of value
in the eyes of the man of taste than one of those in
sipid Bibles of the seventeenth century where the
most awful of the old texts are translated into
academic language and decorated with vignettes in
rococo style.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE GOSPEL OF LUKE.
As we have already several times had occasion to
remark, the Gospel writings at the period at which we
have arrived, were numerous. The majority of those
writings did not bear the names of Apostles ; they
were second-hand attempts founded upon oral tradi
tion, which they did not pretend to exhaust. The
Gospel of Matthew alone presented itself as having
the privilege of an apostolic origin ; but that Gospel
was not widely diffused ; written for the Jews of Syria,
it had not yet, to all appearance, penetrated to Rome.
It was under these conditions that one of the most
conspicuous members of the Church at Rome under
took " himself also " (Luke i. 3) to compile a Gospel
from former texts, and not forbidding himself, any
more than his predecessors had done, to intercalate
what tradition and his own beliefs furnished him
with. This man was no other than Lucanus or Luke,
the disciple whom we have seen attach himself to
Paul in Macedonia, follow him in his travels and in
his captivity, and play an important part in his cor
respondence. We may readily believe that after the
132 THE GOSPELS AND
death of Paul he remained in Rome, and as he musb
have been young when Paul knew him (about the
year 52), he would now be scarcely more than sixty
years of age. It is impossible, in such cases, to speak
with certainty ; there is, however, no very strong
reason for supposing that Luke was not the author of
the Gospel which bears his name. Luke was not yet
sufficiently famous for anyone to make use of his
name to give authority to a book, as had been done
in the case of the Apostles Matthew and John, later,
for James and Peter.
Nor does the date appear involved in much uncer
tainty. All the world admits that the book is of
later date than the year 70 ; but, on the other hand, it
cannot be very much later. If it were, the predictions
of the immediate appearance of Christ in the clouds,
which the author copies without flinching from the
oldest documents, would be sheer nonsense. "The
author throws back the year of the return of Jesus
to an indeterminate future ; " the end " is postponed
as far as possible, but the connection between the
catastrophe of Judea and the destruction of the
world is maintained. The author preserves also the
assertion of Jesus, according to which the generation
which listened to him should not pass away until his
predictions as to the end of the world were accom
plished. Notwithstanding the extreme latitude which
the apostolic exegesis claims in the interpretation of
the discourses of our Lord, it cannot be allowed that
an editor so intelligent as that of the third Gospel,
an editor who knows so well how to make the words
of Jesus pass through the changes required by the
necessities of the time, should have copied a phrase
which embodies a peremptory objection to the gift of
prophecy attributed to the Master.
It is certainly only by conjecture that we connect
Luke and his Gospel with the Christian society in
Rome in the time of the Flavii. Yet it is certain that
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 133
the general character of the work of Luke answers
well to what such an hypothesis requires. Luke, we
have already remai ked, has a sort of Roman spirit ;
he loves order the hierarchy; he has a profound
respect for the centurions, and for the Roman
functionaries, and likes to show them as favourable
to Christianity. By an able turn, he succeeds in not
saying that Jesus was crucified and insulted by the
Romans. Between Luke and Clemens Romanus there
are considerable analogies. Clemens often cites the
words of Jesus from Luke, or a tradition analogous to
that of Luke. The style of Luke, on the other hand,
by its Latinisms, its general form, and its Hebraisms,
recalls the Shepherd of Hennas. The very name of
Luke is Roman, and may belong, by a bond of patron
and client, or of emancipation, to some M. Annseus
Lucanus, of the family of the celebrated poet, which
would make a connection the more with that family
of Annaea which is to be found everywhere under
the dust of Christian Rome. Chapters xxv. and xxvi.
of the Acts lead to the belief that the author, like
Josephus, had relations with Agrippa II., Berenice,
and the little Jewish coterie at Rome. Even down
to Herod Antipas, whose misdeeds he almost attempts
to extenuate, he represents its intervention in the
Gospel history as benevolent in some aspects. May
we not also find a Roman custom in that dedication
to Theophilus, which recalls that of Josephus to
Epaphroditus, and appears altogether foreign to the
customs of Syria and Palestine in the first century of
our era ? We can see, besides, how such a situation
recalls that of Josephus, writing almost at the same
time, the one telling of the rise of Christianity, the
other the Jewish revolution, with a very similar senti
ment moderation, antipathy to extreme parties, an
official tone implying more care for defending posi
tions than for truth, respect, mingled with fear, for
the Roman authority, whose very severities he strives
134 THE GOSPELS AND
to present as excusable necessities, and by whom he
affects to have been sometimes protected. It is this
which makes us believe that the world in which Luke
lived and that of Josephus were very near to each
other, and must have had more than one point of
contact.
This Theophilus is otherwise unknown ; his name
may be only a fiction or a pseudonym to distinguish
some one of the powerful adepts of the Church of
Rome one of the Clemens, for instance. A little
preface clearly explains the intention and the situa
tion of the author :
Forasmuch as many have takeu in hand to set forth in order
a declaration of those things which are most surely believed
among us, even as they delivered them unto us which from the
beginning were eye-witnesses of the word, it seemed good to me,
also having had perfect understanding of all things from the
very first, to write unto thee, in order, most excellent Theophilus,
that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein
thou hast been instructed.
It does not necessarily follow from this preface
that Luke must have had under his eyes, in working,
these numerous writings to whose existence he bears
witness ; but the reading of the book leaves no doubt
on that point. The verbal coincidences of the text of
Luke with that of Mark, and, by consequence, with
Matthew, are very frequent. No doubt Luke may
have had under his eyes a text of Mark which differed
very little from our own. We might say that he has
assimilated it bodily, except the part of Mark vi. 45
to viii. 26, and the story of the Passion, for which he
has preferred an ancient tradition. In the rest, the
coincidence is literal, and when there are variants, it is
easy to see the motive which has induced Luke to
correct, in view of those whom he addressed, the
original which he had under his hands. In the
parallel passages of the three texts, the details which
Matthew adds to Mark, Luke has not; what Luke
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 135
appears to add, Matthew always has. In the passages
which are wanting in Mark, Luke always has another
recension than Matthew. In other words, in the parts
common to the three Evangelists, Luke offers a
sensible agreement in terms with Matthew only
when the last presents a similar agreement with
Mark. Luke has not certain passages of Matthew
without any visible reason why he should have
neglected them. The discourses of Jesus are frag
mentary in Luke as in Mark ; it would be incompre
hensible that Luke, if he had known Matthew, should
have broken up the grand discourses which the last
gives. Luke, it is true, recalls a host of Logia which
are not to be read in Mark, but these Logia did not
come to his knowledge in the arrangement which we
find in Matthew. Let us add that the legends of
childhood and the genealogies have in the two
evangelists in question nothing in common. Why
should Luke cheerfully expose himself to evident
objections ? We can only conclude that Luke did not
know one Matthew ; and in effect, the essays of which
he speaks in his prologue might bear the names of
disciples or of apostles, but none of them could have
borne a name like that of Matthew, since Luke dis
tinguishes clearly between apostles, witnesses, and
actors in the Gospel history, and traditionary authors
and editors who have only reduced to writing the
traditions without any special title to do so.
By the side of the book of Mark, Luke had surely
on his table other narratives of the same kind, from
which also he borrowed largely. The long passage
from ix. 51 to xviii. 14, for example, has been copied
from an earlier source, for it is all in confusion : Luke
composed better than that when he followed oral
tradition only. It has been calculated that a third of
the text of Luke is to be found in neither Mark nor
Matthew. Some of the Evangelists lost to us from
whom Luke thus borrowed, contained very precise
136 THE GOSPELS AND
details ; " those upon whom the tower of Siloam fell,"
those " whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacri
fice." Many of these documents were simply resettings
of the Gospel of the Hebrews, strongly impressed with
Ebionism, and thus approached Matthew. Hence may
be explained in Luke certain passages analogous to
Matthew which do not appear in Mark. The majority
of the primitive Logia are to be found in Luke, not
disposed in the form of great discourses as in our
Matthew, but backed about and applied to particu
lar circumstances. Not only has Luke not had St
Matthew s Gospel under his hands, but it does not
seem that he can have made use of any collection of
the discourses of Jesus where already the great series
of maxims of which we have verified the insertion in
our Matthew were gathered. If he possessed such
collections, he neglected them. On the other hand,
Luke sometimes connects himself with the Gospel
of the Hebrews, above all, where it is better than
Matthew. It is possible that he had a Greek transla
tion of the Hebrew Gospel.
From this it appears that Luke held with regard to
Mark a position analogous to that which Matthew
held to the same Evangelist. By both Mark has been
enlarged by additions borrowed from documents drawn
more or less from the Hebrew Gospel. To explain the
numerous additions which Luke made to the common
basis of Mark, and which are not in Matthew, a large
part must be attributed to oral tradition. Luke
plunged deeply into that tradition ; he drew from it ;
he looked upon it as on the same footing as the
numerous authors of essays on Gospel History who
had existed before him. Did he scruple to insert in
his text stories of his own invention, in order to stamp
upon the work of Jesus the impression which he
believed to be the true one ? Certainly not. Tradition
itself did no otherwise. Tradition is a collective work,
since it expresses the mind of all ; but at the same
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 137
time there has always been someone who uttered for
the first time the bright saying or the significant
anecdote. Luke has often been that someone. The
spring of the Logia had been dried up ; and, to say the
truth, we believe that it never produced anything more.
On the contrary, the liberty of the Agada shows itself
entirely in the right which Luke assumes of handling
his documents according to his convenience, of culling,
intercalating, transposing, and combining at his will,
to obtain the arrangement which suited him the best.
Not once did he say, If this history is true like this it
cannot be true like that. The true material is nothing
to him ; the idea, the dogmatic and moral aim, are
everything. I will even add the literary effect. Thus
it is possible that what has caused him not to admit in
to his bundle of Logia collected before him or even to
divide them violently, it may be a scruple of his deli
cate taste which has made him find these artificial group
ings a little heavy. Nothing equals the ability with
which he cuts down previous collections created upon
the framework of Logia thus dispersed. He encases
them, serves them like little gems in the delightful
narratives which provoke them and lead up to them.
The art of arranging has never been carried so far.
Naturally, however, that method of composing brings
about with Luke, as with Matthew, and generally with
all the Gospels of the " second hand " artificially edited
from earlier documents, repetitions, contradictions,
and incoherencies, coming from the diverse documents
which the last editor sought to blend together. Mark
alone, by his primitive character, is exempt from this
defect, and it is the best proof of his originality.
We have insisted elsewhere upon the errors which
the distance of the Evangelist from Palestine has made
him commit. His exegesis rests only the Septuagint,
which he follows in its greatest blunders. The author
was not a Jew by birth ; he certainly writes for those
who are not Jews ; he has only a superficial acquaint-
138 THE GOSPELS AND
ance with the geography of Palestine, and the man
ners of the Jews. He omits everything that would
be uninteresting to non-Israelites, and he adds notes
which would be uninteresting to a native of Pales
tine. The genealogy which he attributes to Jesus
leads to the belief that he was addressing people who
could not easily verify a Biblical text. He extenu
ates all that shows the Jewish origin of Christianity,
and although he may have a sort of tender compas
sion for Jerusalem, the Law has ceased to exist for
him, save as a memory.
The spirit which inspired Luke is thus much more
easy to determine than that which inspired Mark
and the author of the Gospel according to Matthew.
These two last Evangelists are neutral, taking no part
in the quarrels which were rending the Church. The
partisans of Paul, and those of James, might equally
adopt them. Luke, on the contrary, is a disciple of
Paul, moderate certainly, tolerant, full of respect for
Peter, even for James, but a decided supporter of the
adoption into the Church of Pagans, Samaritans,
publicans, sinners, and heretics of all sorts. It is in
him that we find the pitiful parable of the Good
Samaritan, of the Prodigal Son, of the Lost Sheep, of
the Lost Drachma, where the position of the penitent
sinner is placed almost above that of the just man
who has not failed. Certainly Luke was in that
matter in agreement with the very spirit of Jesus,
but there is on his part preoccupation, prejudice, fixed
ideas. His boldest stroke was the conversion of one
of the two thieves of Calvary. According to Mark
and Matthew, the two malefactors insulted Jesus.
Luke puts a fine sentiment into the mouth of one of
them. "We receive the due rewards of our deeds,
but this man hath done nothing amiss." In return,
Jesus promises that that very day he shall be with
him in Paradise. Jesus goes further. He prays for
his executioners. " They know not what they do,"
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 139
In Matthew, Jesus appears ill-disposed towards
Samaria, and recommends his disciples to avoid the
cities of the Samaritans as in the way of Pagans.
According to Luke, on the contrary, he is in frequent
communication with the Samaritans, and speaks of
them in terms of praise. It is to the journey to
Samaria that Luke attaches a great amount of teach
ing and of narrative. Far from imprisoning Jesus in
Galilee, like Mark and Matthew, Luke obeyed an
anti-Galilean and anti-Judaic tendency a tendency
which will be much more visible in the fourth Gospel.
In many other respects the Gospel of Luke forms a
sort of intermediary between the two first Gospels
and the fourth, which appears at first to offer no trace
of union with them.
There is scarcely an anecdote or a parable proper to
Luke which does not breathe that spirit of mercy, and
of appeal to sinners. The only saying of Jesus which
ever appears a little harsh becomes in his hands an
apologue, full of indulgence and of long-suffering.
The unfruitful tree ought not to be cut down too
quickly ; a good gardener opposes the anger of the
proprietor, and asks leave to dig about the roots of
the unhappy tree, and to dung it before condemning
it altogether. The Gospel of Luke is especially the
Gospel of pardon, and of pardon obtained by faith.
"There is more joy in heaven over a sinner that
repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons
which need no repentance." "The Son of Man is
come not to destroy men, but to save them." Any
quantity of straining is lawful to him, if only he can
make each incident of the Gospel history a history of
pardoned sinners. Samaritans, publicans, centurions,
guilty women, benevolent Pagans, all those whom
Pharisaism despises, are his clients. The idea that
Christianity has pardons for all the world is his alone.
The door is open ; conversion is possible to all. It is
no longer a question of the Law ; a new devotion, the
140 THE GOSPELS AND
worship of Jesus, has replaced it. Here it is the
Samaritan who does the good deed, whilst the priest
and the Levite pass indifferent by. There a publican
comes out of the Temple justified by his humility,
whilst the irreproachable but haughty Pharisee goes
out more guilty than before. Elsewhere the sinful
woman is raised by her love for Jesus, and is per
mitted to bestow on him particular marks of tender
ness. Elsewhere, again, the publican Zacchaeus be
comes at the first onset a son of Abraham, by the
simple fact of his having shown eagerness to see
Jesus. The offer of an easy pardon has always been
the principal means of success in all religions. " Even
the most guilty of men," says Bhagavat, " if he comes
to adore me, and to turn himself to me in his worship,
must be accepted as good." Luke adds the taste for
humility. " That which is highly esteemed amongst
men is abomination in the sight of God." The power
ful shall be cast down from his throne, the humble
shall be exalted; there, in brief, is the revolution
wrought by Jesus. Now, the haughty is the Jew,
proud of his descent from Abraham ; the humble is
the gentle man who draws no glory from his ancestors,
and owes everything that he is to his faith in Jesus.
The perfect conformity of these views with those of
Paul may readily be seen. Paul had no Gospel in the
sense in which we understand the word. Paul had
never heard Jesus, and intentionally speaks with much
reserve of his relations with his immediate disciples.
He had seen very little of them, and had passed only
a few days in the centre of their traditions, at Jeru
salem. He had scarcely heard tell of the Logia; of
the tradition of the Gospel he knew only fragments.
It must be added, however, that these fragments agree
well with what we read in Luke. The account of the
Last Supper, as Paul gives it, is identical, save for a
few details of small importance, with that of the third
Gospel. Luke, without doubt, carefully avoids all
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 141
that might offend the Judeo-Christian party, and
awaken controversies which he desires to put to rest ;
he is as respectful to the Apostles as he can be ; he
fears, however, that they will assume a too exclusive
position. His policy, in this respect, has inspired him
with the boldest of ideas. By the side of the Twelve
he creates, of his own authority, seventy disciples, to
whom Jesus gives a mission which in the other Gospels
is reserved for the Twelve alone.
In this was an imitation of that chapter of Numbers
in which God, in order to console Moses under a burden
which had become too heavy, pours out upon seventy
elders a part of the spirit of government which, until
then, had been the gift of Moses alone. As though
with the intention of rendering more conspicuous this
division, and this likeness of powers, Luke divides
between the Twelve and the Seventy the apostolic
instructions which in the collections of Logia form
only a single discourse addressed to the Twelve. This
number of seventy or seventy-two had, moreover, the
advantage of corresponding with the number of the
nations of the earth, as the number twelve answered
to the tribes of Israel. There was, indeed, an opinion
that God had divided the earth amongst seventy-two
nations, over each of which an angel presided. The
figure was mystical ; besides the seventy elders of
Moses, there were seventy-one members of the Sanhe
drim, seventy or seventy-two Greek translators of the
Bible. The secret thought which dictated to Luke
this so grave addition to the Gospel text is thus
evident. It was necessary, to save the legitimacy of
the apostolate of Paul, to present that apostolate as
parallel to the powers of the Twelve, to show that one
might be an Apostle without being one of the Twelve
which was precisely Paul s case. The Twelve, in
a word, did not exhaust the apostolate ; the pleni
tude of their powers did not make the existence of
others impossible, " and besides," the sage disciple of
142 THE GOSPELS AND
Paul hastens to add, " these powers, in themselves, are
nothing ; what is important to them, as to every other
faithful man, is to have their names written in
heaven." Faith is everything ; faith is the gift of
God, which he bestows on whom he will.
From such a point of view the privileges of the
sons of Abraham are reduced to a very small thing.
Jesus, rejected by his own, finds his true family only
amongst the Gentiles. Men of distant countries, the
Gentiles of Paul, have accepted him as king, whilst
his companions, whose natural sovereign he was, have
shown him that they will none of him. Woe to them !
When the lawful king shall return, he will put them
to death in his presence. The Jews imagine that
because Jesus has eaten and drunk with them, and
taught in their streets, they will always enjoy their
privileges. They are in error. Many shall come from
the north, and from the south, and shall sit down
with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, and they
shall lament at the door. The lively impression of
the misfortunes which have befallen the Jewish
people may be read upon every page, and these mis
fortunes, the author finds, the nation has merited
through not having understood Jesus and the mission
with which he was charged for Jerusalem. In the
genealogy Luke avoids tracing the descent of Jesus
from the kings of Judah. From David to Salathiel
the descent is through collaterals.
Other and less open signs discover a favourable
intention towards Paul. It is not unquestionably
merely by chance that, after having described how
Peter was the first to recognise Jesus as the Messiah,
the author does not give the famous words, " Thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
Church ; " words which were already taking their
place in the tradition. The story of the Canaanitish
woman, which the author had undoubtedly read in
Mark, is omitted because of the harsh words which
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 143
it contains, and for which the pitiful ending is no
sufficient compensation. The parable of the tares,
which appears to have been imagined against Paul,
that untoward sower who came after the authorised
sowers and made a mingled harvest out of a pure one,
is also neglected. Another passage, where we think
we may see an insult to the Christians who shake
off the bondage of the Law, is retorted, and becomes
an attack on the Judeo-Christians. The rigour of
the principles of Paul upon the apostolic spirit, is
pushed even further than in Matthew, and what is
equally important, is that precepts addressed else
where to the little group of missionaries are here
applied to the whole body of the faithful. " If any
man come to me and hate not his father and mother,
and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea
and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
" Whoever he be of you that f orsaketh not all that
he hath, he cannot be my disciple." And after these
sacrifices he says yet again, " We are unprofitable
servants ; we have done that which it was our duty
to do." Between the Apostle and Jesus there is no
difference. He who hears the Apostle hears Jesus ;
he who despises the Apostle despises Jesus and de
spises also him that hath sent him.
The same exaltation may be remarked in all that
relates to poverty. Luke hates riches, regards the
simple attachment to property as an evil. When
Jesus came into the world there was no room for
him in the inn ; he was born in the midst of the
simplest of beings, sheep and oxen. His first wor
shippers were shepherds. All his life he was poor.
It is absurd to save, for the rich man can carry
nothing away with him. The disciple of Jesus has
nothing to do with the goods of this world : he must
renounce all that he possesses. The happy man is
the poor man ; the rich man is always guilty : hell
is his certain fate. So the poverty of Jesus was
144 THE GOSPELS AND
absolute. The Kingdom of God will be the festival
of the poor ; a shifting of the social strata, an acces
sion of new classes, will take place. With the other
Evangelists the persons who are substituted for the
original guests are people gathered out of the high
ways, the first comers ; with Luke they are the poor,
the halt, the lame, the blind, all who have been the
sport of fortune. In this new kingdom it will be
better to have made friends amongst the poor, even
by injustice, than to have been correctly economical.
It is not the rich who should be invited to dinners,
it should be the poor ; and the reward shall be paid
at the resurrection of the just that is to say, in the
reign of a thousand years. Alms are a supreme pre
cept; alms are strong enough to purify impure things;
they are greater than the Law itself.
The doctrine of Luke is, it will be seen, pure
Ebionism the glorification of poverty. According to
the Ebionites, Satan is king of this world, and he
gives its good things to his fellows. Jesus is the
prince of the world to come. To participate in the
good things of the diabolical world is equivalent to
exclusion from the other. Satan is the sworn enemy
of Christians and of Jesus ; the world, its princes and
its rich men, are his allies in the work of opposition
to the kingdom of Jesus. The demonology of Luke is
material and bizarre. His miracle-mongering has
something of the crude materialism of Mark : it
terrifies the spectators. Luke does not know in this
way the softened tones of Matthew.
An admirable popular sentiment, a fine and touch
ing poetry, the clear and pure sound of a silvery soul,
something removed from earth! iness and exquisite in
tone, prevent us from dreaming of these blemishes,
these many failures of logic, these singular contradic
tions. The judge and the importunate widow, the
friend with the three loaves, the unfaithful steward,
the prodigal son, the pardoned woman that was a
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 145
sinner, many of the combinations proper to Luke at
first appear to positive minds little conformable to
scholastic reason and to a strict morality ; but these
apparent weaknesses, which are like the amiable im
perfections of a woman s thought, are a feature of
truth the more, and may well recall the tone of
emotion, soon expiring, soon breathless, the altogether
womanly movement of the words of Jesus, ruled by
image and by sentiment much more than by reason.
It is, above all, in the stories of the childhood and of
the Passion that we find a divine art. These delicious
episodes of the cradle, of the shepherds, of the angel
who announces great joy to the lowly, of heaven
descending upon earth amongst the poor to sing the
song of peace on earth to men of good will ; then the
old man, worthy personification of ancient Israel,
whose part is finished, but who considers himself
happy in that he has lived his life, since his eyes have
seen the glory of his people and the light revealed to
all nations ; and that widow of eighty who dies con
soled ; and the Canticles, so pure, so gentle Magnificat,
Gloria in Excelsis, Nunc Dimittis, Benedicts which
will soon serve as the basis of a new liturgy ; all that
exquisite pastoral traced with a delicate outline on
the forefront of Christianity all that is assuredly the
work of Luke. Never was sweeter cantilena invented
to put to sleep the sorrows of poor humanity.
The taste which carried Luke towards pious narra
tives naturally inclined him to create for John the
Baptist a childhood like that of Jesus. Elizabeth and
Zecharias long barren, the vision of the priest at the
hour of incense, the visit of the two mothers, the
Canticle of the father of John the Baptist, were as the
propylcca before the porch, imitated from the porch
itself, and reproducing its principal lines. There is no
necessity for denying that Luke may have found in
the documents of which he made use the germs of
these exquisite narratives which have been one of the
K
146 THE GOSPELS AND
principal sources of Christian art. In fact, the style of
the childhoods of Luke, truncated, full of Hebraisms,
is scarcely that of a prologue. Moreover, this part of
the work is more Jewish than the rest: John the
Baptist is of sacerdotal origin ; the rites of the purifi
cation, and of circumcision, are carefully accomplished ;
the family of Jesus go on a pilgrimage every year;
many anecdotes are altogether in the Jewish taste.
A remarkable fact is that the part of Mary nothing
in Mark grows little by little in proportion as we
get further from Judea, and as Joseph loses his pater
nal character. The legend wants her, and allows it
self to be led away to speak of her at length. It
can only be imagined that the woman whom God
has chosen to impregnate by the Spirit must be no
ordinary woman ; she it is who serves as the guarantee
for whole chapters of the Gospel history; who has
created for herself in the Church a position which has
become more important from day to day.
Very beautiful, and also very unhistoric, are the
narratives proper to the third Gospel of the Passion,
death, and resurrection of Jesus. In this part of his
book, Luke almost abandons his original Mark, and
follows other texts. Hence we have a narrative even
more legendary in character than that of Matthew.
Everything is exaggerated. At Gethsernane, Luke
adds the angel, the sweating of blood, the curing of
the amputated ear of Malchus. The appearance be
fore Herod Antipas is entirely of his invention. The
beautiful episode of the daughters of Jerusalem, in
tended to present the crowd as innocent of the death
of Jesus, and to throw all the odium of it upon the
great men and their chiefs, the conversion of one of
the malefactors, the prayer of Jesus for his execu
tioners, drawn from Isaiah liii. 12, are deliberate
additions. For the sublime cry of despair, Eli, eli,
lama sabachthani, which was no longer in harmony
with the ideas of the Divinity of Jesus which were
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 147
growing up, he substitutes a calmer text, " Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit." Finally the life of
Jesus after his resurrection is related on an altogether
artificial plan, conformable in part to that of the
Gospel of the Hebrews, according to which that life
beyond the tomb lasted but for one day, and was
brought to a close by an ascension which Matthew
and Mark altogether ignore.
The Gospel of Luke is then an amended Gospel,
completed and strongly impressed with legend. Like
the pseudo-Matthew, Luke corrects Mark, foreseeing
objections, effacing real or apparent contradictions,
suppressing more or less difficult features, and vulgar
exaggerated or insignificant details. What he does
not understand, he suppresses or turns with infinite
skill. He adds touching and delicate details. He
invents little, but he modifies much. The aesthetic
transformations which he creates are surprising. The
picture which he has drawn of Mary and her sister
Martha, is a marvellous thing : no pen has ever traced
ten more charming lines. His arrangement of the
woman with the alabaster box of ointment is not less
exquisite. The episode of the disciples at Emmaus, is
one of the finest and most delicately-shaded in any
language.
The Gospel of Luke is the most literary of the
Gospels. Everything in it reveals a large and gentle
mind, wise, moderate, sober, and rational, even in the
midst of unreason. His exaggerations, his impro
babilities, his inconsequences, are somewhat of the
nature of parables, and give its charm to it. Matthew
rounds off the somewhat harsh outlines of Mark ;
Luke does more he writes and shows a true under
standing of the art of composition. His book is a
beautiful narrative well followed up, at once Hebraic
and Hellenistic, uniting the emotion of the drama with
the serenity of the idyll. Everyone there smiles,
weeps, sings ; everywhere there are tears and canticles ;
148 THE GOSPELS AND
it is the hymn of the new people, the hosannah of
the little ones and the humble introduced into the
kingdom of God. A spirit of the holy childhood, of
joy, of fervour, the evangelic sentiment in its origin
ality, spreads over the whole legend a colouring of an
incomparable sweetness. Never was writer less sec
tarian. Never a reproach, never a harsh word for
the old excluded people ; is not their exclusion pun
ishment enough ? It is the most beautiful book there
is. The pleasure that the author must have had in
writing it will never be sufficiently understood.
The historical value of the third Gospel is certainly
less than that of the two first. Nevertheless, one
remarkable fact which proves that the so-called
synoptical Gospels really contain an echo of the words
of Jesus, results from the comparison of the Gospel of
Luke with the Acts of the Apostles. On both sides .
the author is the same. Yet when we compare the
discourses of Jesus in the Gospels with the discourses
of the Apostles in the Acts, the difference is absolute ;
here the charm of the most utter simplicity, there
(I should say in the discourses of the Acts, especially
towards the last chapters) a certain rhetoric, at times
cold enough. Whence can this difference arise ?
Evidently because in the second case Luke makes the
discourses himself, while in the first he follows a
tradition. The words of Jesus were written before
Luke ; those of the Apostles were not. A considerable
inference may be drawn from the account of the Last
Supper in the First Epistle of St Paul to the Corin
thians. The most anciently written Gospel text that
there is may be found here (the First Epistle to the
Corinthians is of the year 57.) Now this text coin
cides absolutely with that of Luke. Luke then has
his own value, even when he is separated from Mark
and Matthew.
Luke marks the last degree of deliberate revision at
which the Gospel tradition may arrive. After him
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 149
we have no more than the apocryphal Gospel based
upon pure amplification and cb priori supposition,
without the use of any new documents. We shall see
later how the texts of the kind of Mark, of Luke,
and of the pseudo-Matthew were still insufficient for
Christian piety, and how a new Gospel came into
existence which had the pretension of surpassing
them. We shall have, above all things, to explain
why none of the Gospel texts succeeded in suppress
ing the others, and how the Christian Church exposed
itself by its very good faith to the formidable objec
tions which sprang out of their diversities.
CHAPTEK XIV.
THE DOMITIAN PERSECUTION.
THE monstrosities of the " bald Nero " made frightful
progress. He reached madness, but a sombre, deter
mined madness. Until now there had been intervals
in his paroxysms ; now it was a continuous frenzy.
Wickedness mingled with a feverish rage, which ap
pears to be one of the fruits of the Roman climate,
the sensation of becoming ridiculous through his
military failures, and by the lying triumphs which he
had ordered, filled him with an implacable hatred for
every honest and sensible man. He might have been
called a vampire feeding greedily upon the carcase of
expiring humanity ; an open war was declared against
all virtue. To write the biography of a great man
was a crime ; it seemed as though there was a wish
to abolish the human intellect, and to take away the
voice from conscience. Everything that was illus
trious trembled ; the world was full of murders -and
150 THE GOSPELS AND
exiles. It must be said, to the honour of our poor
humanity, that it went through this trial without
bending. Philosophy recognised her position, and
strengthened herself more than ever in this struggle
against torment; there were heroic wives, devoted
husbands, constant sons-in-law, faithful slaves. The
family of Thrasea and Barea Soranus, was always in
the front rank of the virtuous opposition. Helvidius
Priscus (the son), Arulenus Rusticus, Junius Mauricus,
Senecio, Pomponia Gratilla, Fannia, a whole family
of great and strong souls, resisted without hope.
Epictetus repeated every day in his grave voice,
"Stand up and abstain. Suffering, thou wilt never
make me agree that thou art an ill. Anytus and
Melitus may kill me ; they cannot injure me."
It was a very honourable thing for philosophy and
for Christianity that under Domitian, as under Nero,
they should have been persecuted in company. As
Tertullian says, what such monsters condemned must
have had something of good in it. It is the topstone
of wickedness in a government when it does not
permit the good to live even under its most resigned
form. The name of philosopher implied thenceforward
a profession of ascetic practices, a special kind of life,
a cloak. This race of secular monks, protesting by
their renunciation against the vanities of the world,
were during the first century the greatest enemies of
Caesarism. Philosophy, let us say it to its glory,
does not readily lend its support to the basenesses of
humanity, and to the sad consequences which that
baseness entails in politics. Heirs of the liberal spirit
of Greece, the Stoics of the Roman epoch dreamed of
virtuous democracies in a time which suited only with
tyranny. The politicians whose principle it is to shut
themselves up within limitations as far as possible,
had naturally a strong antipathy to such a way of
looking at things. Tiberius had been wont to hold
the philosophers in aversion. Nero (in 66) drove
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 151
away these importunates, whose presence was a per
petual reproach to his life. Vespasian (in 74) had
better reasons for doing the same thing. His young
dynasty was sapped every day by the republican
spirit which Stoicism fostered; he did but defend
himself by taking precautions against his most mortal
enemies.
Nothing more than his own personal wickedness
was necessary to induce Domitian to persecute the
sages. He had early entertained a hatred for men of
letters: every thought was a condemnation of his
crimes and of his mediocrity. In his later days he
could not suffer them. A decree of the senate
drove the philosophers from Rome and from Italy.
Epictetus, Dionysius Chrysostom, Artemidorus, de
parted. The courageous Sulpicia dared to raise his
voice on behalf of the banished, and to address pro
phetic menaces to Domitian. Pliny, the younger,
escaped almost by a miracle from the punishment
which his distinction and his virtue merited. The
treatise Octavius composed about this time contains
cruel outbursts of indignation and despair :
Urbe est nostra mitior Aulis
Et Taurorum barbara tellus ;
Hospitis illic caede litatur
Numen superum ; civis gaudet
Roma cruore.
It is not surprising that the Jews and the Chris
tians should have suffered from the recoil of these
redoubtable terrors. One circumstance rendered war
inevitable : Domitian, imitating the madness of Cali
gula, wished to receive divine honours. The road to
the Capitol was crowded with herds which were taken
to his statue to be sacrificed there : the form of the
letters from his Chancery commenced with Dominus
et Dens nosier. We must read the monstrous pre
face which Quintilian, one of the master spirits of
the age, puts at the head of one of his volumes, on the
1 52 THE GOSPELS AND
day following that on which Domitian had charged
him with the education of his adopted heirs, the sons
of Flavius Clemens : " And now it would be not
to understand the honour of the celestial apprecia
tions, to remain below my task. What care the
morals require if they are to obtain the approval of
the most holy of censors ! What attention I shall
have to give to the studies not to disappoint the ex
pectations of a prince so eminent for eloquence as for
everything else! One is not astonished that the poets,
after having invoked the Muses at the outset, renew
their vows when they arrive at difficult passages of
their tasks ... So also I shall be pardoned for call
ing all the gods to my help, and in the first place he
who more than any other divinity shows himself
propitious to our studies. May he inspire me with
the genius which the functions to which he has called
me require ; may he always assist me ; may he make
me what he has believed me."
Such is the tone adopted by a man who was "pious"
in the fashion of his times. Domitian, like all hypo
critical sovereigns, showed himself a severe upholder
of the old worship. The word impietas especially
during his reign had generally a political signification,
and was synonymous with l&se majeste. Religious
indifference and tyranny had reached such a point
that the Emperor was the only god whose majesty
was dreaded. To love the Emperor was piety ; to
be suspected of opposition or even of coldness was
impiety. The word was not from that suspected of
having lost its religious sense. The love of the
Emperor, in fact, implied the respectful adoption of
a whole sacred rhetoric which no sensible man could
any longer accept as serious. That man was a revolu
tionary who did not bow before these absurdities,
which had become part of the routine of the state ;
now the revolutionary was the impious man. The
Empire thus came from it to a sort of orthodoxy, to
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 153
an official pedagogy as in China. To admit what the
Emperor wished with a sort of loyalism like that
which the English affect towards their sovereign and
their Established Church, this was what was called
religio, and gained for a man the title of pius.
In such a condition of the language and of minds,
Jewish and Christian monotheism must have appeared
a supreme impiety. The religion of the Jew and of
the Christian attached itself to a supreme God, the
worship of whom was a robbery of the profane god.
To worship God was to give a rival to the Emperor ;
to worship other gods than those of whom the Em
peror was the legal patron, constituted a yet worse
insult. The Christians, or rather the pious Jews,
believed themselves obliged to make a more or less evi
dent sign of protest when passing before the temples ;
at least they refrained absolutely from the kiss
which it was the custom of pious Pagans to wave to
the sacred edifice in passing before it. Christianity,
by its cosmopolitan and revolutionary principle, was
certainly " the enemy of the gods, of the emperors,
of the laws, of morals, of all nature." The best of
the emperors will not always know how to disen
tangle this sophism, and, without knowing it, almost
without wishing it, will be persecutors. A narrow and
wicked spirit, like that of Domitian, became such
with pedantry and even with a sort of voluptuousness.
The Roman policy had always made in religious
legislation a fundamental difference. Roman states
men saw no harm in a provincial practising his
religion in his own country without any spirit of
proselytism. When this same provincial wished to
worship in his own way in Italy, and, above all, in
Rome, the matter became more delicate ; the eyes of
the true Roman were offended by the spectacle of
fantastic ceremonies, and from time to time the police
come to sweep out what these aristocrats regarded as
ignominies. The foreign religions were besides ex-
154 THE GOSPELS AND
tremely attractive to the lower classes, and it was
regarded as a necessity of state to keep them within
due limits. But what was held to be altogether grave
was that Roman citizens, persons of importance, should
abandon the religion of Rome for Oriental supersti
tions. That was a crime against the state. The
Roman was yet the basis of the Empire. Now the
Roman was not complete without the Roman religion;
for him to go over to a foreign religion was to be
guilty of treason to his country. Thus a Roman
citizen could never be initiated into Druidism.
Domitian, who aspired to the character of a restorer
of the worship of the Latin gods, would not lose so
fine an opportunity of delivering himself to his
supreme joy, which was to punish.
We know with certainty in effect, that a great
number of persons having embraced Jewish customs
(the Christians were frequently placed in this cate
gory) were brought to judgment under the accusation
of impiety or atheism. As under Nero, calumnies
uttered by false brethren were perhaps the cause of
the evil. Some were condemned to death ; others
were exiled or deprived of their goods. There were
some apostacies. In the year 95 Flavius Clemens
was Consul. In the last days of his Consulate
Domitian put him to death on the slightest suspicion,
coming from the basest informers. These suspicions
were assuredly political, but the pretext was religion.
Clemens had, without doubt, manifested little zeal for
the Pagan forms with which every civil act in Rome
was accompanied: possibly he had abstained from
some ceremony regarded as of capital importance.
Nothing more was required to justify the issue of a
charge of impiety against him and against Flavia
Domitilla. Clemens was put to death. As to Flavia
Domitilla, she was exiled to the island of Pandataria,
which had already been the scene of the exile of Julia,
the daughter of Augustus, of Agrippina, the wife of
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 155
Germanicus, of Octavia, the wife of Nero. This was
the crime for which Domitian paid most dearly.
Domitilla, whatever was the decree of her initiation
into Christianity, was a Roman woman. To avenge
her husband, to save her children, compromised by
the caprices of a fantastic monster, appeared to be
a duty. From Pandataria she continued to main
tain relations with the numerous body of slaves and
freedmen whom she had at Rome, and who appear
to have been strongly attached to her.
Of all the victims of the persecution of Domitian,
we know one only by name that of Flavius Clemens.
The ill-will of the Government appears to have been
directed far more against the Romans who were
attracted to Judaism or to Christianity than against
the Jews and Oriental Christians established in Rome.
It does not appear that any of the presbyteri or episcopi
of the Church suffered martyrdom. Among the
Christians who suffered, none appear to have been
delivered to the beasts in the amphitheatre, for almost
all belonged to what were relatively the upper
classes of society. As under Nero, Rome was the
principal scene of these violences ; there were, how
ever, troubles in the provinces. Some Christians
faltered and left the Church, where for the moment
they had found consolation for their souls, but where
it was too hard to remain. Others, however, were
heroic in charity, spent their goods to feed the saints,
and took upon themselves the chains of those whom
they judged to be more valuable to the Church than
themselves.
The year 95 was not, it may be owned, as solemn a
time for the Church as the year 64, but it had its
importance. It was like a second consecration of
Rome. After an interval of thirty-one years the
maddest and wickedest of men appeared to lay him
self out for the destruction of the Church of Jesus,
and in reality strengthened it so that the apologists
156 THE GOSPELS AND
could put forth this specious argument, " All monsters
have hated us ; therefore we are the true."
It was probably the information which Domitian
had of this remark upon Judeo-Christianity which
told him of the rumours which circulated concerning
the continued existence of descendants of the ancient
dynasty of Judah. The imagination of the Agadists
gave itself the rein on this subject, and attention,
which for centuries had been diverted from the family
of David, was now strongly attracted to it. Domitian
took umbrage at this, and commanded all who bore
that name to be put to death ; but soon it was pointed
out to him that amongst these supposed descendants
of the antique royal race of Jerusalem there were
people whose inoffensive character ought assuredly to
place them beyond suspicion. There were the grand
sons of Jude, the brother of Jesus, peaceably retired
in Batanea. The defiant Emperor had besides heard
tell of the coming triumph of Christ; all that dis
quieted him. An evocatus came to seek out the holy
people in Syria ; they were two ; they were taken to
the Emperor. Domitian asked them first if they were
the descendants of David. They answered that they
were. The Emperor then questioned them as to their
means of living. "Between us," they said, "we
possess only 9000 denarii, of which each of us takes
half. And that property we possess not in money
but in the form of a piece of land of some thirty
acres upon which we pay the taxes, and we live by
the labour of our hands." Then they showed their
hands covered with callosities, and hardened, and red
with toil. Domitian questioned them concerning
Christ and his kingdom ; his future appearance, and
the times and places of his appearance. They
answered that his kingdom was not of this world ;
that it was celestial, angelic ; that it would be revealed
at the end of time, when Christ should come in his
glory to judge the quick and the dead, and render to
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 157
each man according to his works. Domitiau could
feel only contempt for such simplicity ; he set at
liberty the two grand-nephews of Jesus. It appears
that that simple idealism completely reassured him as
to the political dangers of Christianity, and that he
gave orders to cease the persecution of these dreamers.
Certain indications in effect lead to the belief that
Domitian towards the end of his life relaxed his
severities. It is, however, impossible to be certain in
this matter ; for other witnesses lead us to think that
the situation of the Church was improved only after
the advent of Nerva. At the moment when Clemens
wrote his letter, the fire appears to have diminished.
It was like the morrow of a battle ; they count those
who have fallen, those who are still in chains are
pitied ; but they are far from believing that all is
over. God is entreated to defeat the perverse designs
of the Gentiles, and to deliver his people from those
who hate them without a cause.
The persecution of Domitian struck at Jews and
Christians alike. The Flavian house thus put the
topstone to its crimes, and became for the two branches
of the house of Israel the most flagrant representation
of impiety. It is not impossible that Josephus may
have fallen a victim to the last fury of the dynasty
which he had nattered. After the year 93 or 94 we
hear no more of him. The works which he con
templated in 93 were not written. In that year his
life had been in danger through the curse of the
times the informers. Twice he escaped the danger,
and his accusers were even punished ; but it was the
abominable habit of Domitian in such a case to revoke
the acquittal which he had pronounced, and, after
having chastised the informer, to slay the accused.
The frightful rage for murder which Domitian showed
in 95 and 96 against everyone connected with the
Jewish world and family, scarcely permits it to be
believed that he would have allowed a man to go
158 THE GOSPELS AND
unharmed who had spoken of Titus in a tone of
panegyric (a crime in his eyes the most unpardonable
of all), and had praised himself only casually. The
favour of Domitia whom he detested, and whom he
had resolved to put to death, was, besides, a sufficient
grievance. Josephus in 96 was only 59. If he had
lived under the tolerant reign of Nerva, he would
have continued his writings, and probably explained
some of the insinuations which the fear of the tyrant
had imposed.
Have we a monument of these sombre months of
terror, where all the worshippers of the true God
dreamed only of martyrdom, in the discourse " on the
Empire of Reason," which bears in the MSS. the name
of Josephus ? The thoughts, at least, are very much
those of the times in which we are. A strong soul is
mistress of the body which she animates, and allows
herself to be conquered only by the most cruel punish
ments. The author proves his position by the
examples of Eleazer and of the mother who, during
the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanius, courageously
endured death with her seven sons histories which
may also be found in the sixth and seventh chapters of
the Second Book of Maccabees.
Notwithstanding the declamatory tone, and certain
ornaments which recall a little too strongly the lesson
of philosophy, the book contains noble doctrines.
God embodies in himself the eternal order which is
made manifest to man by reason ; reason is the law of
life; duty consists in preferring it to the passions.
As in the Second Book of Maccabees, the idea of future
rewards and punishments is altogether spiritual. The
righteous dead live to God for God in the sight of God,
Zuffi rudtw. God as the author is at the same time the
absolute God of philosophy, and the national God of
Israel. The Jew ought to die for his Law, first, because
it is the Law of his fathers, then because it is divine
and true. The meats forbidden by the Law have
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 159
been forbidden because they are injurious to man ; in
any case, to break the Law in small things is as
culpable as to do so in great, since in the two cases
the authority of reason is equally misunderstood. It
is easy to see how such a way of looking at things
connects that of Josephus and of the Jewish philoso
phers. From the wrath which breaks forth in every
page against tyrants, and from the images of tortures
which haunt the mind of the author, the book
evidently dates from the time of the last outbreak of
Domitian s fury. It is by no means impossible that
the composition of this noble writing may have been
the consolation of the last days of Josephus, when,
almost certain of dying under punishment, he sought
to gather together all the reasons that a wise man
might find for not fearing death.
The book succeeded amongst the Christians ; under
the title of Fourth Book of Maccabees it was almost
received into the canon ; many Greek manuscripts of
the Old Testament contain it. Less fortunate, how
ever, than the Book of Judith, it was not able to keep
its place ; the Second Book of Maccabees afforded no
sufficient reason for placing it at its side. The interest
ing point for us is that we may there see the first
type of a species of literature which was later much
cultivated, exhortations to martyrdom, in which the
author exalts to encourage the sufferers the example
of feeble beings who have shown themselves heroic,
or still better of these Acta martyrum, now pieces
of rhetoric having edification as their aid, proceeding
by oratorical amplification, without any care for histo
rical truth, and finding in the hideous details of the
antique the ferments of a sombre voluptuousness and
the means of emotion.
An indistinct echo of all these events may be found
in the Jewish traditions. In the month of September
or October four elders of Judea, Rabbi Gamaliel, pa
triarch of the tribunal of Jabneh ; Rabbi Eleazar ben
160 THE GOSPELS AND
Azariah ; Rabbi Joshua ; Rabbi Aquiba, later so cele
brated, appeared at Rome. The journey is described
in detail : every evening, because of the season, they
anchored in some port; on the day of the Feast of
Tabernacles the Rabbins found the means to erect on
the bridge of the boat a hut of foliage, which the wind
carried away the next day ; the time of the navigation
was occupied in discussing the manner of paying title,
and of supplying the place of the loulab (palm-branch
with myrtle, used at this feast) in a country where
there were no palm trees. At a hundred and twenty
miles from the city the travellers heard a hollow
murmur ; it was the sound of the Capitol. All then
shed tears. Aquiba alone burst into laughter. " Why
do you not weep," said the Rabbins, " at seeing how
happy and tranquil are the idolators who sacrifice to
false gods, while the sanctuary of our God has been
consumed by fire, and serves as a den for the beasts of
the field ? " " Well," said Aquiba, " it is- that which
makes me laugh. If God grants so many good things
to those who offend him, what destiny awaits those
who do his will, and to whom the kingdom belongs ? "
Whilst these four elders were at Rome the senate
of the Emperor decreed the extermination of the
Jews throughout the world. A senator, a pious man
(Clemenes ?) reveals this redoubtable secret to Gama
liel. The wife of the senator, even more pious than
he (Domitilla ? ?) advises him to kill himself by suck
ing a poison which he keeps in his ring, which will
save the Jews (how one does not see). Later on, the
conviction spread that this senator was circumcised,
or, according to the figurative expression, " that the
vessel had not quitted the port without paying the
impost." According to another account, the Cassar,
enemy of the Jews, said to the great of his empire :
" If one has an ulcer on the foot, should he cut off his
foot or keep it at the risk of suffering ? " All were
for amputation, except Katia ben Shalom. This last
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 161
was put to death by order of the Emperor and died
whilst saying, " I am a ship which has paid its taxes ;
I may set sail."
There are plenty of vague images here and
memories of half sane people. Some of the con
troversies of the four doctors at Rome are reported.
" If God disapproves idolatry," they were asked, " why
does he not destroy it ? " "But God must then destroy
the sun, moon, and stars." "No; he might destroy
useless idols and leave the useful ones." " But that
would at once make those things divine which he has
not destroyed. The world goes its own way. The
stolen seed grows like any other; the unchaste woman
is not sterile because the child which shall be born of
her is a bastard." In preaching, one of the four
travellers utters this thought: "God is not like
earthly kings, who make laws, and do not themselves
observe them." A Min (a Judeo-Christian ?) heard
these words, and on coming out of the hall said to the
doctor, " Why does not God observe the Sabbath ;
the world goes on just as usual on Saturday ? " " Is
it not lawful on the Sabbath day to move whatever is
in one s house ? " " Yes," said the Min. " Well, then,
the whole world is the house of God."
CHAPTER XV.
CLEMENS ROMANUS PROGRESS OF THE PRESBYTERIATE.
THE most correct lists of the Bishops o Rome, forcing
a little the signification of the word bishop, for times
so remote place after Anenclet a certain Clement,
who from the similarity of his name and the nearness
of his time has frequently been confounded with
L
1G2 THE GOSPELS AND
Flavius Clemens. The name is not rare in the Judeo-
Christian world. We may in strictness suppose a
relationship of patron and client between our Clement
and Flavius Clemens. But we must absolutely set
aside both the theory of certain modern critics
who insist on seeing in Bishop Clement only a
fictitious personage, a double of Flavius Clemens,
and the error which at various times comes to light
in the ecclesiastical tradition, according to which
Bishop Clement was a member of the Flavian family.
Clemens Romanus was not merely a real personage,
he was a personage of the first rank, a true chief of
the Church, a bishop before the Episcopate was
definitely constituted ; I would almost dare to say
a pope, if the word were not too great an anachronism
in this place. His authority was recognised as the
greatest in all Italy, in Greece, in Macedonia, during
the last decade of the first century. At the expiration
of the apostolic age he was like an apostle, an epigon
in the great generation of the disciples of Jesus, one
of the pillars of that Church of Rome, which, after the
destruction of the Church of Jerusalem, became more
and more the centre of Christianity.
Everything leads to the belief that Clement was of
Jewish origin. His familiarity with the Bible, the
turn of style in certain passages of his Epistle, the
use which he makes of the Book of Judith and of
apocryphal writings such as the assumption of Moses,
do not agree with the idea of a converted Pagan.
On the other hand, he appears to be little of a
Hebraiser. It appears then that he was born in
Rome of one of those Jewish families which had
inhabited the capital of the world for many genera
tions. His knowledge of cosmography and of profane
history presuppose a careful education. It is admitted
that he had been in relation with the Apostles, especi
ally with Peter, though on this point the proof is
perhaps hardly decisive. What is indubitable is the
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 163
high rank which he held in the spiritual hierarchy
of the Church of his time, and the unequalled credit
which he enjoyed. His approval made law. All
parties claimed him, and wished to shelter themselves
under his authority. A thick veil hides his private
opinions from us ; his Epistle is a fine neutral frag
ment with which the disciples of Paul and the dis
ciples of Peter might equally content themselves.
It is probable that he was one of the most energetic
agents in the great work which was about to be
accomplished, I mean the posthumous reconciliation of
Peter and Paul, and the fusion of the two parties,
without the union of which the work of Christ must
have perished.
The extreme importance at which Clement had
arrived results, above all things, from the vast apocry
phal literature which is attributed to him. When,
towards the year 140, an attempt was made to gather
together into one body of writing, clothed with an
ecclesiastical character, the Judeo-Christian traditions
concerning Peter and his apostolate, Clement was
chosen as the supposed author of the work. When
it was desired to codify the ancient ecclesiastical
customs, and to make the collection thus formed a
Corpus of " Apostolic Constitutions," it was Clement
who guaranteed that apocryphal work. Other writ
ings, all having more or less connection with the
establishment of a canon law, were equally attributed
to him. The fabricator of apocryphas endeavours
to give weight to his forgeries. The name which
he puts at the head of his compositions is always
that of a celebrity. The sanction of Clement thus
appears to us as the highest which can be imagined
in the second century to recommend a book. Thus in
the Pastor of the psuedo-Hermas, Clement s special
function is assigned as being that of sending the
books newly issued in Rome to the other Churches,
and of causing them to be accepted. His supposed
164 THE GOSPELS AND
literature, whether he must be taken as assuming
personal responsibility for it or not, is a literature of
authority, inculcating on every page the hierarchy,
obedience to the priests, to the bishops. Every phrase
which is attributed to him is a law, a decretal.
The right of speaking to the Universal Church is
freely accorded to him. He is the first typical
" Pope " whom ecclesiastical history presents. His
lofty personality, increased yet more by legend, was,
after that of Peter, the holiest image of Christian
Rome. His venerable face was for succeeding ages
that of a grave and gentle legislator, a perpetual
preacher of submission and respect.
Clement passed through the persecution of Domi-
tian without suffering from it. When the severities
abated, the Church of Rome renewed its relations
with the outer world. Already the idea of a certain
primacy of that Church began to make itself felt.
The right of advising the Churches and of adjusting
their differences was accorded to it. Such privileges,
it may at least be believed, were accorded to Peter
and to his immediate disciples. Now, a closer and
closer bond was established between St Peter and
Rome. Grave dissensions had torn the Church of
Corinth. That Church had scarcely changed since
the days of St Paul. There was the same spirit of
pride, of disputatiousness, of frivolity. We feel that
the principal opposition to the hierarchy dwelt in this
Greek spirit, always mobile, frivolous, undisciplined,
not knowing how to reduce a crowd to the condition
of a flock. The women, the children, were in full
rebellion. The transcendental doctors imagined that
they possessed concerning everything deep significa
tions, mystical secrets, analogous to the gift of tongues
and the discerning of spirits. Those who were honoured
with these supernatural gifts despised the elders and
aspired to replace them. Corinth had a respectable
presbyteriate, but one which never aimed at an exalted
TfiE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 165
mysticism. The illuminati pretended to throw it
into the shade, and to put themselves into its place ;
some of the elders were even deprived. The struggle
of the established hierarchy and of personal relations
began, and the conflict filled all the history of the
Church, the privileged soul finding it wrong that, in
spite of the favours with which he had been honoured,
a homely clergy, strangers to the spiritual life, should
govern it officially. Not without a certain likeness
to Protestantism, the rebels of Corinth formed them
selves into a separate Church, or at least distributed
the Eucharist in other than consecrated places. The
Eucharist had always been a stumbling block to
the Church of Corinth. That Church had its rich
and its poor; it accommodated itself with especial
difficulty to the mystery of equality. At last
the innovators, proud to excess of their exalted
virtue, raised chastity to the point of depreciating
marriage. This was, as will be seen, the heresy
of individual mysticism maintaining the rights of
the spirit against authority, pretending to raise itself
above the level of the faithful, and of the ordinary
clergy, in the name of its direct relations with the
Divinity.
The Roman Church, consulted on these internal
troubles, answered with admirable good sense. The
Roman Church was then above all things the Church
of order, of subordination, of rule. Its fundamental
principle was that humility and submission were of
more value than the most sublime of gifts. The
Epistle addressed to the Church of Corinth was
anonymous, but one of the most ancient traditions
has it that Clement s was the pen which wrote it.
Three of the most considerable of the elders
Claudius Ephebus, Valerius Biton, and Fortunatus
were charged to carry the letter, and received full
powers from the Church at Rome to brimr about n
reconciliation.
166 THE GOSPELS AND
THE CHURCH OF GOD ABIDING IN ROME TO THE UHURCH OF
GOD IN CORINTH, TO THE ELECT SANCTIFIED BY THE WILL
OF GOD AND OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, GRACE AND
PEACE BE UPON YOU IN ABUNDANCE FROM GOD ALMIGHTY
BY JESUS CHRIST.
The misfortunes, the unforeseen catastrophes which have
fallen upon us, blow upon blow, have, brethren, been the reason
that we occupied ourselves but slowly with the questions which
you have addressed to us, dear brethren, touching the impious
and detestable revolt, cursed of the elect of God, which a small
number of insolent and daring persons have raised up and carried
to such a point of extravagance, that your name so famous, so
venerable, and so beloved of all, has suffered great injury. Who
was he who having lived among you did not esteem your virtue
and the firmness of your faith ? Who did not admire the wis
dom and the Christian moderation of your piety ? Who did not
publish the largeness of your hospitality ? Who did not esteem
you happy in the perfection and soundness of your knowledge ?
You did all things without acceptation of persons, and you
walked according to the laws of God, obedient to your leaders.
You rendered due honour to the elders, you warned the young
men to be grave and sober, and the women to act in all things
with a pure and chaste conscience, loving their husbands as they
ought to do, dwelling in the rule of submission, applying them
selves to the government of their houses with great modesty.
You were all humble-minded, free . from boastings, disposed
rather to submit yourselves than to cause others to submit to
you, to give than to receive. Content with the sacraments of
Christ, and applying yourselves carefully to his word, you kept
it in your hearts, and had always his sufferings before your eyes.
Thus you rejoiced in the sweetness of a profound peace ; you had
an insatiable desire to do good, and the Holy Ghost was fully
poured out upon you. Fitted with good-will, with zeal, and with
an holy confidence, you stretched forth your hands towards Al
mighty God, praying for pardon for your involuntary sins.
You strove day and night for all the community, so that the
number of the elect of God was saved by the force of piety and
of conscience. You were sincere and innocent, without, resent
ment of injuries. All rebellion, all divisions you held in horror.
You wept over the fall of your neighbours ; you esteemed their
faults as your own. A virtuous and respectable life was your
adornment, and you did all things in the fear of God ; his com
mandments were written upon the tables of your hearts, you
were in glory and abundance, and in you was accomplished that
which was written : " The well-beloved hath eaten and drunk ;
he has been in abundance ; he has waxed fat and kicked."
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 167
(Deut. xxxii. 15.) Hence have come jealousies and hatred
disputes and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and capti
vity. Thus the vilest persons have been raised above the most
worthy ; the foolish against the wise ; the young against the old.
Thus justice and peace have been driven away ; since the fear
of God has fallen off, since the faith is darkened, since all will
not follow the laws, nor govern themselves according to the
maxims of Jesus Christ, but follow their own evil desires,
abandoning themselves to unjust and impious jealousies, by
which death first came into the world.
After having quoted many sad examples of jealousy,
taken from the Old Testament, he adds :
But let us leave here these ancient examples and come to the
strong men who have lately fought. Let us take the illustrious
examples of ovr own generation. It was through jealousies and
discord that the great men who were the pillars of the Church
have been persecuted, and have fought to the death. Let us
place before our eyes the holy Apostles, Peter, for example, who,
through an unjust jealousy suffered not once or twice but many
times, and who, having thus accomplished his martyrdom, has
gone to the place of glory which was due to him. It was through
jealousy and discord that Paul has shown how far patience can
be carried ; seven times in chains, banished, stoned, and after
having been the herald of the Truth in the east and in the west,
he has received the noble reward of his faith, after having
taught justice to the whole world and being come to the very
extremity of west. Having thus accomplished his martyrdom
before the earthly power, he was delivered from this world, and
has gone to that holy place, giving to all of us a great example
of patience. To those men whose life has been holy has been
joined a great company of the elect, who, always through jealousy,
have endured many insults and torments, leaving amongst
us an illustrious example. It was finally pursued by jealousy
that the poor women, the Danaides and the Dirces, after having
suffered terrible and monstrous indignities, have reached the
goal in the sacred course of faith, and have received a noble
recompense, feeble in body though they were.
Order and obedience are the supreme law of the
Church.
It is better to displease imprudent and senseless men who
raise themselves up and who glorify themselves through pride
in their discourses, than to displease God. Let us respect our
168 THE SECOND CHTtLSTIAN GENERATION.
superiors, honour the elders, instruct the young in the fear of
God, chasten our wives for their good. Let the amiable habit
of chastity display itself in their conduct : let them show a
simple and true gentleness ; let them show by their silence that
they know how to rule their tongues, that, instead of allowing
their hearts to be carried away by their inclinations, they
testify with holiness to an equal friendship for all who fear
God. . . . Let us consider the soldiers who serve under our
sovereigns ; with what order, what punctuality, what submis
sion do they obey. All are not prefects, nor tribunes, nor cen
turions, but each in his rank obeys the orders of the Emperor
and of the chiefs. The great cannot exist without the small, nor
the small without the great. In everything there is a mixture
of diverse elements, and it is because of that mixture that things
goon. Let us take our bodies for an exam pie. The head without
the feet is nothing ; the feet are nothing without the head.
The smallest of our organs are necessary, and serve the whole
body ; all work together and obey one same principle of sub
ordination for the preservation of all. Let each then submit to
his neighbour according to the order in which he has been
placed by the grace of Christ Jesus. Let not the strong neglect
the weak, let the weak respect the strong ; let the rich be
generous to the poor, and the poor thank God for having given
him one to supply his needs. Let the wise man show his wis
dom not by discourses, but by good works ; let not the humble
bear witness to himself, let him leave that care to others. Let
him who preserves the purity of the flesh not exalt himself
therefore, seeing that he has from another the gift of contin-
ence.
The Divine Service ought to be celebrated in the
places and at the hours fixed by the ordained
ministers, as in the Temple of Jerusalem. All power,
all ecclesiastical rule, comes from God.
The Apostles have evangelised us on the part of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ had received his mission from
God. Christ has been sent by God, and the Apostles have been
sent by Christ. The two things have then been regularly done
by the will of God. Provided with instruction from the Master,
persuaded by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ,
strengthened in the faith in the Word of God by the confirma
tion of the Holy Ghost, the Apostles went out preaching the
approach of the Kingdom of God. Preaching thus alike in the
country and in the cities, they chose those who had been the
first-fruits of their apostolate, and after having proved them by
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 169
the Spirit, established them Episcopi and Diaconi of those who
believe. And this was no novelty, for the Scripture had long
spoken of Episcopi and Diaconi, since it saith in one place, " I
will establish their Episcopi on the foundations of justice and
their Diaconi on the bases of faith" (Isa. Ix. 17). Our Apostles,
enlightened by our Lord Jesus Christ, knew perfectly that there
would be competition for the title of Episcopos, This is why
they conferred that title in their perfect prescience on those
whom we have named and prescribed, that after their death
other approved men should assume their functions. These then
who have been established by the Apostles or afterwards by
other excellent men with the consent of all the Church, and who
have served the flock of Jesus Christ without reproach, humbly,
peaceably, honourably, to whom all have borne good testimony
during a long time, we do not think it just to cast out of the
ministry, for we could not without grave, fault eject from the
Episcopate those who worthily present the sacred offerings.
Happy are the elders who have finished their career before us
and are dead in holiness, and with fruit ! They at least have
no fear lest any should come and drive them from the place to
which they have been called. "We see, in a word, that you have
deprived some who lived well in the ministry, of which office
they acquitted themselves without reproach and with honour.
Have we not the same God, the same Christ, the same Spirit
of Grace poured out upon us ? Why shall we tear away, why
shall we cut off, the members of Christ ? Why should we make
war upon our own body, and come to such a point of madness as
to forget that we are all members one of another ? Your schism
has driven away many persons, it has discouraged others, it has
cast certain into doubt, and afflicted all of us ; nevertheless, your
rebellion continues. Take the Epistle of the blessed Paul the
Apostle. What is the first thing of which he writes to you at
the beginning of his Gospel ? Certainly the Spirit of Truth dic
tated to him what he commanded you touching Cephas, Apollos,
and himself. Then there were divisions amongst you, but those
divisions were less guilty than the divisions of to-day. Your
choice was divided amongst authorised Apostles and a man
whom they had approved. Now consider who are those who
have led you astray, and have injured that reputation for fra
ternal love for which you were venerated. It is shameful, my
beloved, it is very shameful and unworthy of Christian piety to
hear it said that that Church of Corinth, so firm, so ancient, is in
revolt against its elders because of one or two persons. And
this report has come not only to us, but to those who hold us in
but little goodwill, so that the name of the Lord is blasphemed
through your imprudence, and you create perils for yourselves.
. Such a faithful one is specially gifted to explain the secrets
170 THE GOSPELS ANt&gt;
of the gnose (tongues); he has the wisdom to discern the discourse ;
he is pure in his actions, let him humiliate himself so that he
may be greater, let him seek the common good before his own.
The best thing the authors of these troubles can do
is to go away.
Is there amongst you anyone who is generous, tender, and
charitable, let him say, " If I am the cause of the rebellion, the
quarrel, the schisms, I will retire, I will go where you will, I
will do what the majority order, I ask only one thing, which is,
that the flock of Christ may be at peace with the elders who
have been established." He who will thus use himself will
acquire a great glory in the Lord, and will be made welcome
wherever he may go. "The earth is the Lord s and all that
therein is." See what they have done, and what they yet will
do, who do the will of God, which never leads to repentance.
Kings and pagan chiefs have braved death in time
of pestilence, to save their fellow-citizens ; others have
exiled themselves to put an end to civil war. " We
know that many amongst us have delivered themselves
to chains, that they might deliver others." If those
who have caused the revolt recognise their errors,
it is not to us, it is to God, to whom they will yield.
All ought to receive with joy the correction of the
Church.
You then who have begun the rebellion, submit yourselves
to the elders, and receive the correction in the spirit of penitence,
bending the knees of your hearts. Learn to submit yourselves,
renouncing the vain and insolent boldness of your tongues ; for
it is better that you should be small but esteemed in the flock
of Christ, than that you should keep up the appearance of superi
ority, and be deprived of your hopes in Christ.
The submission which is due to the bishops and
elders, the Christian owes to the powers of the earth.
At the moment of the most diabolical atrocities of
Nero, we heard Paul and Peter declare that the
power of this monster came from God. Clement, in
the very days when Domitian was guilty of the
greatest cruelties against the Church, and against the
human race, held him equally as being the lieutenant
THE SECONt) CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 171
of God. In a prayer which he addresses to God, he
thus expresses himself :
It is them, supreme Master, who by thy great and unspeak
able power hast given to our sovereigns and to those who govern
us upon earth the power of royalty. Knowing the glory and the
honour which thou hast distributed to them, we submit our
selves to them, thus avoiding placing ourselves in contradiction
with thy will. Give to them, Lord, health, peace, concord,
stability, that they may exercise without hindrance the sove
reignty which thou has confided to them. . For it is thou,
Heavenly Master, King of the Worlds, who hast given to the
children of men the glory, and the honour, and the power over
all that there is on the surface of the earth. Direct, O Lord !
their wills for good, and according to that which is pleasing to
thee, so that exercising in peace, with gentleness and piety, the
power which thou has given, they may find thee propitious.
Such is this document, a remarkable monument of
the practical wisdom of the Church of Rome, of its
profound policy, of its spirit of government. Peter
and Paul are there more and more reconciled; both
are right; the dispute about Law and works is pacified;
the vague expressions "our apostles," "our pillars,"
mask the memory of past struggles. Although a
warm admirer of Paul, the author is profoundly a Jew.
Jesus for him is simply " the child beloved of God ; "
"the great High Priest," "the chief of Christians."
Far from breaking with Judaism, he preserves in its
integrity the privilege of Israel ; only a new chosen
people amongst the Gentiles is joined with Israel. All
the antique prescriptions preserve their force, even
though they have ceased to bear their original mean
ing. Whilst Paul abrogates, Clement preserves and
transforms. What he desires above all things is
concord, uniformity, rule, order in the Church as in
nature, and in the Roman Empire. Let everyone obey
in his rank : this is the order of the world. The
small cannot exist without the great, nor the great
without the small ; the life of the body is the result
of the common action of all the members. Obedience
is then the summing-up, the synonym of the word
172 THE GOSPELS AND
duty. The inequality of men, the subordination of
one to the other, is the law of God.
The history of the ecclesiastical hierarchy is the
history of a triple abdication, the community of the
faithful remitting first all its powers to the hands of
the elders or presbyteri ; the presbyteral body joining
in a single personage, who is the episcopos ; then the
episcopi effacing themselves in the presence of one of
them, who is pope. This last process, if we may so
describe it, was effected only in our own days. The
creation of the Episcopate is the work of the second
century. The absorption of the Church by the pres
byteri was accomplished before the end of the first.
In the Epistle of Clement of Rome it is not yet the
episcopate, it is the presbytery, which is in question.
Not a trace of a presbyteros superior to his fellows is
to be found. But the author proclaims aloud that the
presbyteriate, the clergy, are before the people. The
Apostles, in establishing Churches, have chosen, by the
inspiration of the Spirit, " the bishops and deacons of
future believers." The powers emanating from the
Apostles have been transmitted by a regular succession.
No Church has a right to deprive its elders. The
privilege of riches counts for nothing in the Church.
In the same way, those who are favoured with mystical
gifts ought to be the most submissive.
The great problem is approached : who form the
Church ? Is it the people ? or the clergy ? or the
inspired? The question had already been asked in
the time of St Paul, who solved it in the right way by
mutual charity. Our Epistle defines the question in
a purely Catholic sense. The apostolic title is every
thing ; the right of the people is reduced to nothing.
It may then be said that Catholicism had its origin in
Rome, since the Church of Rome traced out its first
rule. Precedence does not belong to spiritual gifts, to
science, to distinction ; it belongs to the hierarchy, to
the powers transmitted by the channel of canonical
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 173
ordination, which stretches back to the apostolate in
an unbroken chain. We feel that a free Church such
as Jesus had conceived, and as St Paul still admitted,
was an anarchical utopia, which could not be looked
for in the future. With gospel liberty there would
have been disorder: it was not seen that with the
hierarchy would come uniformity and death.
From the literary point of view the Epistle of
Clement is somewhat weak and soft. It is the first
monument of that prolix style, charged with super
latives, smelling of the preacher, which to this day
remains that of the Papal Bulls. The imitation of St
Paul is palpable ; the author is governed by his
memories of the sacred Scriptures. Almost every line
contains an allusion to the writings of the Old
Testament. Clement shows himself singularly pre
occupied with the new Bible, which is in course of
formation. The Epistle to the Hebrews, which was
a sort of inheritance of the Church of Rome, evidently
formed his habitual reading ; we may say the same of
the other great Epistles of St Paul. His allusions
to the Gospel texts appear to be divided between
Matthew, Mark, and Luke ; we might almost say that
he had the same Gospel matter as we, but distributed
without doubt otherwise than as we have it. The
allusions to the Epistles of James and Peter are
doubtful. But the allusions to the Jewish apocryphas,
to which Clement accords the same authority as to
the writings of the Old Testament, are striking : Judith
an apocrypha of Ezekiel, the assumption of Moses,
perhaps also the prayer of Manasseh. Like the
Apostle Jude, Clement admitted into the Bible all
those recent products of Jewish imagination or passion,
inferior though they are to the old Hebrew literature,
but more fitted than this last of pleasing at the time,
by their tone of pathetic eloquence and of lively
piety.
The Epistle of Clement attained besides the object
174 THE GOSPELS AND
for which it had been written. Order was re
established in the Church of Corinth. The lofty
pretensions of the spiritual doctors were abated.
Such was the ardent faith of these little conventicles,
that they submitted to the greatest humiliations
rather than quit the Church. But the work had a
success which extended far beyond the limits of the
Church of Corinth. There has been no writing more
imitated, more quoted. Polycarpus, or the author of
the Epistle attributed to him, the author of the apocry
phal Epistles of Ignatius, the author of the fragment
falsely called the Second Epistle of Clement, borrow
from it as from a document known almost by heart.
The treatise was read in the Churches like inspired
Scripture. It took its place amongst the additions
to the Canon of the New Testament. In one of the
most ancient manuscripts of the Bible (the Codex
Alexandrinus), it is found at the end of the books of
the new alliance, and as one of them.
The trace left at Rome by Bishop Clement was
profound from the most ancient times ; a Church
consecrated his memory in the valley between the
Coelius and the Esquiline, in the district where, accord
ing to tradition, the paternal house was placed, and
where others, through a feeling of secular hesitation,
wished to recall the memory of Flavius Clemens.
We shall see him later become the hero of a surpris
ing romance, very popular in Rome, and entitled " the
Recognitions," because his father, his mother, and his
brothers, bewailed as dead, are found again, and recog
nise each other. With him was associated a certain
Urapte, charged together with him with the govern
ment and teaching of widows and orphans. In the
half light in which he remains enveloped, and, as it
were, lost in the luminous haze of a fine historic
distance, Clement is one of the great figures of nascent
Christianity. Some vague rays come only out of the
mystery which surrounds him ; one might call him a
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 175
saint s head in an old half -effaced fresco of Giotto, still
recognisable by its golden aureole and by some vague
tints of a pure and gentle light.
CHAPTER XVI
END OF THE FLAVII NERVA RECRUDESCENCE OF
THE APOCALYPSES.
THE death of Domitian followed closely upon that
of Flavius and the persecution of the Christians.
There were between these events relations which are
hardly to be explained. " He had been able," says
Juvenal, " to deprive Rome with impunity of her
most illustrious souls, without anyone arming him
self to avenge them, but he perished when he became
terrible to the cobblers. Behold what lost a man
stained with the blood of the Lamia!" It seems
probable that Domitilla and Flavius Clemens entered
into the plot. Domitilla may have been recalled from
Pandataria in the last months of Domitian. There
was, however, a general conspiracy around the mon
ster. Domitian felt it, and, like all egotists, he was
very exigent as to the fidelity of others. He caused
Epaphroditus to be put to death for having helped
Nero to kill himself, in order to show what crime
the freedman commits who raises his hand against
his master, even with a good intention. Domitia his
wife, all the people of his household, trembled, and
resolved to anticipate the blow which threatened
them. With them was associated Stephanus, a freed
man of Domitilla, and steward of her household.
As he was very robust, he offered himself for the
attack, body to body. On the 18th September, to-
] 76 THE GOSPELS AND
wards eleven o clock in the morning, Stephanus, with
his arm in a sling, presented himself to hand to the
Emperor a memorial on a conspiracy which he pre
tended to have discovered. The chamberlain Par-
thenius, who was in the plot, admitted him, and closed
the door. Whilst Domitian read with attention, Ste
phanus drew a dagger from his bandage and stabbed
him in the groin. Domitian had time to cry to the
little page who attended to the altar of the Lares to
give him the sword which was under his pillow and
to call for help. The boy ran to the bed s head, but
found only the hilt. Parthenius had foreseen all, and
had closed up the ways of escape. The struggle was
sufficiently long. Domitian sought to draw the dagger
from the wound, and then with his fingers half cut
off he tore at the eyes of the murderer, and succeeded
in throwing him to the ground and placing himself
upon him. Parthenius then caused the other con
spirators to enter, who finished off the wretch. It
was time ; the guards arrived an instant later, and
slew Stephanus.
The soldiers, whom Domitian had covered with
shame but whose pay he had increased, wished to
avenge him, and proclaimed him Divus. The senate
was sufficiently strong to prevent this last ignominy.
It caused all his statues to be broken or melted,
his name to be effaced from the inscriptions, and his
triumphal arches to be thrown down. It was ordered
that he should be buried like a gladiator ; but his
nurse succeeded in carrying away his corpse, and
in secretly uniting his ashes to those of the other
members of his family in the temple of the gen*
Flavia.
This house, raised up by the chance of the revolu
tions to such strange destinies, fell thenceforward
into great discredit. The persons of merit and virtue
whom it yet contained were forgotten. The proud
nristocracy, honest and of high nobility, who were
THE SECOND CHlUSTlAN GENERATION. 177
about to reign could only feel the profoundest aver
sion for the relics of a middle-class family whose
last chief had been the object of their just execration.
During the whole of the second century nothing is
heard of any Mavius. Flavia Domitilla ended her
life in obscurity. It is not known what became of
her two sons, whom Domitian had intended for the
Empire. One indication leads to the belief that the
posterity of Domitilla continued until the end of
the third century. That house always preserved, it
would appear, an attachment to Christianity. Its
family sepulchre, situated on the Via Ardeatina, be
came one of the most ancient Christian catacombs.
It is distinguished from all the others by its spacious
approaches ; its vestibule in the classical style, fully
open to the public road ; the size of its principal hall,
destined for the reception of the sarcophagi ; the
elegance and the altogether profane character of the
decorative paintings on the vault of this hall. If one
holds to the frontispiece, everything recalls Pompeii,
or, still better, the Villa of Livy, ad gallinas albas,
in the Flaminian Way. In proportion as one descends
the underground temple (hypogea) the aspect grows
more and more Christian. It is then quite conceiv
able that this beautiful sepulchre may have received
its first consecration from Domitilla, whose family
must have been in a great part Christian. In the
third century the approaches were enlarged and a
collegiate schola was constructed, designed probably
for agapes or sacred feasts.
The circumstances which brought the old Nerva to
the Empire are obscure. The conspirators who killed
the tyrant had, without doubt, a preponderating share
in the choice. A reaction against the abominations of
the preceding reign was inevitable ; the conspirators,
however, having taken part in the principal events of
the reign, did not want too strong a reaction. Nerva
was an excellent man, but reserved, timid, and carry-
M
178 THE GOSPELS AND
ing the taste for half measures almost to excess. The
army desired the punishment of the murderers of
Domitian ; the honest party in the Senate wished for
the punishment of those who had been the ministers
of the crimes of the last government. Dragged about
between these opposing requirements, Nerva often
appeared weak. One day at his table were found
united the illustrious Junius Mauricius, who had
risked his life for liberty, and the ignoble Veientus,
one of the men who had done the greatest evil under
Domitian. The conversation fell upon Catullus
Messalinus, the most abhorred of the informers:
" What would this Catullus do if he were alive ? "
said Nerva. " Faith," cried Mauricius, at the end of
his patience, " he would dine with us."
All the good that could be done without breaking
with the evil, Nerva did. Progress was never loved
more sincerely ; a remarkable spirit of humanity, of
gentleness, entered into the government and even into
the legislation. The Senate regained its authority.
Men of sense thought the problem of the times, the
alliance of the aristocracy with liberty, definitely
resolved. The mania for religious persecution, which
had been one of the saddest features of the reign
of Domitian, absolutely disappeared. Nerva caused
those who were under the weight of accusations of
this kind to be absolved, and recalled the banished.
It was forbidden to prosecute anyone for the mere
practice of Jewish customs ; prosecutions for impiety
were suppressed ; the informers were punished. The
.fiscus jiidaicus, as we have seen, afforded scope for
much injustice. People who did not owe it were
made to pay ; in order to ascertain the quality of
persons liable to it, they were subjected to disgusting
inquiries. Measures were taken to prevent the re
vival of similar abuses, and a special coinage (nsci
IVDAICI CALVMNIA SVBLATA) recalled the memory of
that measure.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 179
All the families of Israel thus enjoyed a relative
calm after a cruel storm. They breathed. For some
years the Church of Rome was more happy and more
flourishing than she had ever been. The apocalyptic
ideas resumed their course ; it was believed that God
had fixed the time of his coming upon earth for the
moment when the number of the elect reached a
certain figure ; every day they rejoiced to see that
number increase. The belief in the return of Nero
had not disappeared. Nero, if he had lived, would
have been sixty, which was a great age for the part
which was destined for him ; but the imagination
reasons little ; besides Nero, the Antichrist became
day by day a more ideal personage, placed altogether
without the conditions of the natural life. For a long
time people continued to speak of his return, even
when it was obvious that he could no longer be alive.
The Jews were more ardent and more sombre than
ever. It appears that it was a law of religious con
science with this people to pour forth in each of the
great crises which tore the Roman Empire one of those
allegorical compositions in which the rein was given
to prognostications of the future. The situation of
the year 97 in many ways resembled that of the year
68. Natural prodigies appeared to multiply. The fall
of the Flavii made almost as much impression as the
disappearance of the house of Julius. The Jews be
lieved that the existence of the Empire was again in
question. The two catastrophes had been preceded
by sanguinary madnesses, and were followed by civil
troubles, which caused doubts as to the vital powers
of a state so agitated. During this eclipse of the
Roman power, the imagination of the Messianists
again took the field ; the eccentric speculations as to
the end of the Empire and the end of time resumed
their course.
The Apocalypse of the reign of Nerva appeared,
according to the custom of compositions of this kind,
180 THE GOSPfeLS ANt)
under a fictitious name, that of Esdras. This writer
began by becoming very celebrated. An exaggerated
part was attributed to him in the reconstitution of
the sacred books. The forger for his purpose wanted
besides a personage who had been contemporary with
a situation of the Jewish people analogous to that
through which they were passing. The work appears
to have been originally written in that Greek full of
Hebraisms which had already been the language
of the Apocalypse of John. The original is lost, but
from the Greek text translations were made into
Latin, Syriac, Armenian, Ethopian, and Arabic which
have preserved to us this precious document, and have
allowed us to restore its first state. It is a sufficiently
fine piece of writing, of a truly Hebrew taste, com
posed by a Pharisee probably at Rome. Christians
read it with avidity, and it was unnecessary to do more
than retouch one or two passages to turn it into a
very edifying Christian book.
The author may in many ways be considered the
last prophet of Israel. The work is divided into
seven sections, for the most part affecting the form of
a dialogue between Esdras, a supposed exile to
Babylon, and the angel Uriel ; but it is easy to see
behind the biblical personage the ardent Jew of the
Flavian epoch, full of rage because of the destruction
of the Temple by Titus. The memory of these dark
days of the year 70 rises in his soul like the smoke of
the pit, and fills it with holy wrath. How far are we,
with this fiery zealot, from a Josephus who treats the
defenders of J erusalem as scoundrels ? Here is a verit
able Jew who is sorry not to have been with those
who perished in the fire of the Temple. The Revolu
tion of Judea, according to him, was not an insanity.
Those who defended Jerusalem to the uttermost,
those assassins whom the moderates sacrificed and
regarded as alone responsible for the misfortunes of
the nations those assassins were saints. Their fate
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 181
was enviable ; they will be the great men of the
future.
Never did Israelite, more pious, more penetrated
with the sufferings of Zion, pour out his prayers and
tears before Jehovah. A profound doubt, the great
doubt of the Jews, rent him, the same which de
voured the Psalmist when he " saw the ungodly in
prosperity." Israel are the chosen people. God has
promised happiness to them if they observe the Law.
Without having fulfilled that condition in all its
rigour, what would be beyond human strength,
Israel is better than other nations. In any c/ise, he
has never observed the Law more scrupulously than
in these last times. Why, then, is Israel the most un
fortunate of peoples ; and more just he is the more
unfortunate ? The author sees clearly that the old
materialistic solutions of this problem cannot be
accepted. Thus is his soul troubled even to death.
Lord, Master Universal, he cries, of all the forests of the
earth, and of all the trees that are found therein, thou hast
chosen a vine ; of all the countries of the world, thou hast
chosen a province ; of all the flowers of the world, thou hast
chosen a lily ; of all the wilderness of water, thou hast chosen
a brook ; amongst all the cities, thou hast sanctified Sion ; of
all the birds, thou hast dedicated a dove to thyself ; and of all
created beasts, thou wouldest take only a lamb for thyself,
thus out of all the people on the face of the earth thou hast
adopted one only, and to that beloved people thou hast given a
Law which all admire. And now, Lord, what has he done that
thou should est deliver thine only One to profanations, that up
on the root of thy choice thou hast grafted other plants, that
thou hast dispersed thy dear ones in the midst of the nations,
those who deny thee crowd upon the feet of the faithful. If
thou hast come to hate thy people, it must be so ! But at
least punish them with thine own hands, and lay not this task
upon the unfaithful.
Thou hast said that it is for us that thou hast created the
world ; that the other nations born of Adam are in thine eyes
but vile spittle (sic). . . . And now, Lord, behold these nations,
thus treated as nothing, rule over us and trample us under foot.
And we thy people, we whom thou hast called thy first-born,
thy only Son, we the objects of thy jealousy, we are delivered
182 THE GOSPELS AND
unto their hands. If the world has been created for us, why
do we not at least possess an heritage ? How long, O Lord, how
long ! . . .
Sion is a desert, Babylon is happy. Is this just ? Sion has
sinned much. She may have, but is Babylon more innocent?
I believed so until I came here, but since I came, what do I see ?
Such impieties that I marvel that thou bearest them, after hav
ing destroyed Sion for so much less iniquity. What nation has
known thee save only Israel ? What tribe has believed in thee
save only that of Jacob ? And who has been less rewarded ?
Amongst the nations I have seen them flourishing and unmind
ful of thy commandments. Weigh in the balance what we
have done, and what they do. Amongst us I confess there are
few faithful ones, but amongst them there are none at all. Now
they enjoy a profound peace, and we, our life is the life of a
fugitive grasshopper ; we pass our days in fear and anguish. It
had been better for us never to have been born than to be tor
mented thus without knowing in what our guilt consists. , . .
Oh, that we had been burned in the fires of Sion ! We are not
better than those who perished there !
The angel Uriel, the interlocutor of Esdras, eludes
as best he can the inflexible logic of this protestation.
The mysteries of God are so profound ! The mind of
man is so limited ! Pressed with questions, Uriel
escapes by a Messianic theory like that of the Chris
tians. The Messiah, son of God, but simple man, is on
the eve of appearing in Zion in glory, in company
with those who have not tasted death, that is to say,
with Moses, Enoch, Elias, and Esdras himself. He
will recall the ten tribes from the " land of Arzareth "
(foreign country). He will fight a great fight against
the wicked; after having conquered them, he will
reign four hundred years upon the earth with his
elect. At the end of that time, the Messiah will die,
and all the living will die with him. The world will
return to its primitive silence for seven days. Then a
new world will appear, and the general resurrection
wiD take place. The Most High will appear upon his
throne, and will proceed to a definitive judgment.
The particular turn which Jewish Messianism
tended to take, clearly appears here. Instead of an
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 183
eternal reign, of which the old prophets dreamed, for
the posterity of David, and which the Messianists
after the pseudo-Daniel transferred to their ideal
king, we arrive at the notion of a Messianic kingdom
as having a limited duration. We have seen the
author of the Christian Apocalypse fix that date at a
thousand years. Pseudo-Esdras contents himself with
four hundred years. The most diverse opinions were
current on that subject amongst the Jews. Pseudo-
Baruch, without specifying the limit, says distinctly
that the Messianic reign will last only as long as the
perishable earth. The judgment of the world from
that point of view is distinguished from the advent of
the Messianic kingdom, and the presidency is given to
the Most High alone and not to the Messiah. Then
the conception of the Eternal Messiah inaugurating an
endless reign, and judging the world, carries him away
altogether, and becomes the essential and distinctive
feature of Christianity.
Such a theory raises a question with which we have
already seen St Paul and his faithful greatly con
cerned. In such a conception there is an enormous
difference between the fate of those who are alive at
the appearance of the Messiah, and those who have
died beforehand. Our seer even asks himself a ques
tion which is odd enough, but certainly logical :
Why did not God make all men alive at the same
time ? He gets out of the difficulty by the hypothesis
of provisional " depots " (promptuaria) where the
souls of departed saints are held in reserve until the
judgment. At the great day the depots will be
opened, so that the contemporaries of the appearance
of the Messiah shall have only one advantage over the
others that of having enjoyed the reign of four
hundred years. In comparison with eternity, that is
a very small matter, and the author thinks himself
justified in maintaining that there will be no point or
privilege, the first and the last will be all equals in
184 THE GOSPELS AND
the Day of Judgment. Naturally, the souls of the
just, confined in a sort of prison, feel some impatience,
and often say : " Until what time is this to continue ?
When will be the day of the harvest ? " The angel
Jeromiel answers them, " When the number of those
like unto you is complete ? " The time is coming.
As the bowels of a woman nine months pregnant
cannot contain the fruit which they bear, so the
depots of Sheol, too full in some sense, hasten to
render up the souls which they contain. The total
duration of the universe is divided into twelve parts ;
ten parts and a half of that period have gone by ;
The world is approaching its end with an incredible
rapidity. The human race is decaying fast; the
stature of man dwindles ; like the children born of
old parents, our races have no longer the vigour of
the earlier ages. " The age has lost its youth, and
time begins to grow old."
The signs of the last days are those which we have
enumerated twenty times. The trumpet shall sound.
The order of Nature will be reversed ; blood shall
flow from wood, and the stones shall speak. Enoch
and Elias will appear to convert man. Men must
hasten to die, and are as nothing compared, with those
that are to come. The more the world is weakened
by old age, the more wicked it will become. Truth
will withdraw day by day from the earth ; good shall
seem to be exiled.
The small number of the elect is the dominant
thought of our sombre dreamer. The entrance to
eternal life is like a narrow strait between two seas,
like a narrow and slippery passage which gives access
to a city ; on the right there is a precipice of tire,
on the left a sea without bottom ; a single man can
scarcely hold himself there. But the sea into which
one enters is also immense, and the city is full of
every good thing. There is in this world more silver
than gold, more copper than silver, more iron than
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 185
copper. The elect are the gold ; the rarer things are,
the more precious they are. The elect are the adorn
ments of God ; those adornments would be valueless
if they were common. God is not grieved by the
multitude of those who perish. Unhappy ones !
they exist no longer than a puff of smoke or a flame ;
they are burned, they are dead. We may see how
deeply rooted in Judaism the atrocious doctrines of
election and of predestination had already become
doctrines which a little later were to cause such cruel
tortures to so many devout souls. These frightful
severities to which all the schools of thought which
deal in damnation are accustomed, at times revolts
the pious sentiment of the author. He allows him
self to exclaim :
Oh Earth ! what hast thou done in giving birth to so many
beings destined to perdition ? It had been better had we no
existence, rather than that we should exist only to be tortured !
Let humanity weep ! let the beasts of the field rejoice ! The
condition of these last is better than ours ; they do not expect
the Judgment ; they have no punishment to fear ; after death,
there is nothing for them. Of what use is life to us, since we
owe to it an eternity of torments ? Better annihilation than the
prospect of judgment.
The Eternal God answers that intelligence has been
given to man that he may be without excuse in the
Day of Judgment and that he has nothing to reply.
The author plunges more and more deeply into
strange questions, which raise formidable dogmas.
Can it be that from the moment that one draws his
last breath that he is damned and tortured, or will an
interval pass, during which the soul is in repose until
the Judgment ? According to the author, the fate of
each man is fixed at death. The wicked, excluded
from the place of departed spirits, are in the condi
tion of wandering souls, tormented provisionally with
seven punishments, of which the two principal are
seeing the happiness enjoyed by those in the asylum
186 THE GOSPELS AND
of just souls, and to assist in the preparations for the
punishment reserved for themselves. The just, guarded
in their liinbo by angels, enjoy seven joys, of which
the most agreeable is that of seeing the sufferings of
the wicked, and the tortures which await them. The
soul of the author, pitiful at bottom, protests against
the monstrosities of his theology. " The just at least,"
asks Esdras, " may not they pray for the damned,
the son for his father, the brother for his brother,
the friend for his friend ? " The answer is terrible.
" Just as in the present life the father cannot be the
substitute for the son, nor the son for the father, the
master for his slave, nor the friend for his friend, to
be sick, to sleep, to eat, to be cured in his place ; so in
that day no one can interfere for another, each shall
bear his own justice or his own injustice." Esdras
adduces in vain the examples of Abraham, and of
other holy persons who have prayed for their brethren.
The Day of Judgment will be the first of a definite
state, where the triumph of justice will be such that
the righteous himself cannot pity the damned. As
suredly we agree with the author when he exclaims
after these responses, supposed to be divine,
I have already said, and I say again, " Better were it for us
that Adam had not been created upon the earth. At least after
having placed him there God should have prevented him from
doing evil. What advantage is it for man to pass his life in
sadness and in misery, when after his death he can expect nothing
else than punishments and torments ? Oh, Adam ! how enormous
was thy crime ! By sinning thou didst lose thyself and hast
dragged down in thy fall all the men of whom thou wert the
father. And of what value is immortality to us if we have done
only deeds worthy of death ?"
Pseudo-Esdras admits liberty ; but liberty has but a
small right of existence in a system which makes so
cardinal a point of predestination. It is for Israel
that the world was created ; the rest of the human
race are damned.
now, Lord, I pray not for all men (thou knowest better
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENEKATION. 187
than I what concerns them), but I will entreat thee on behalf
of thy people ; of thy heritage ; of the perpetual source of my
tears. . . .
Inquire of the earth and she will tell thee that it is to her that
the right of weeping belongs. All those who are born or who
will be born come out of the earth ; yet almost all of them
hasten to destruction, and the greater part of them are destined
to perish ! . . .
Disquiet not thyself because of the great number of those
who must perish, for they also having received liberty have
scoffed at the Most High, have rejected his holy law, have
trampled his just ones under foot, and have said in their hearts
" There is no God." So whilst ye enjoy the rewards that have
b een promised, they will partake of the thirst and the torments
which have been prepared for them. It is not that God hath
desired the destruction of men ; but the men who are the work
of his hands have denied the name of their Maker, and have
been ungrateful to him who has given them life. . . .
I have reserved to myself a grape of the bunch, a plant from
the forest. Let the multitude then perish who have been born
in vain, if only I may keep my single grape, my plant that I
have tended with so much care ! . . .
A special vision is designed, as in almost all apoca
lypses, to give in an enigmatic fashion the philosophy
of contemporary history, and as usual also the date
of the book may be precisely arrived at from it. An
immense eagle (the eagle is the symbol of the Roman
Empire in Daniel) extends its wings over all the
earth and holds it in its grip. It has six pairs of
great wings, four pairs of pinions or opposing wings,
and three heads. The six pairs of great wings are six
Emperors. The second amongst them reigns for so
long that none of those who succeed him reach half
the number of his years. This is obviously Augustus.
and the six Emperors referred to are the six Emperors
of the house of Julius Csesar, Augustus, Tiberius,
Caligula, Claudius, Nero, masters of the East and of
the West. The four pinions or opposing wings are the
four usurpers or Anti-Caesars Galba, Otho, Vitellius,
Nerva, who, according to the author, must not be con
sidered as true Emperors. The reigns of the three
first An ti- Caesars are periods of trouble, during which.
188 THE GOSPELS AND
we may believe that the Empire is at an end ; but the
Empire rises again, though not as she was at the first.
The three heads (the Flavii) represent this new resus
citated Empire. The three heads always act together,
make many innovations, surpass the Julii in tyranny,
put the topstone to the impieties of the Empire of the
Eagle (by the destruction of Jerusalem), and mark
the end. The middle head (Vespasian) is the great
est; all the three devour the pinions (Galba, Otho,
Vitellius), who aspire to reign. The middle head
dies ; the two others (Titus and Domitian) reign ; but
the head on the right devours that on the left (an
evident allusion to the popular belief as to the
fratricide of Domitian) ; the head on the right, after
having killed the other, is killed in its turn ; only the
great head dies in its bed ; but not without cruel
torments (an allusion to the Rabbinical fables as to
the maladies by which Vespasian expiated his crimes
towards the Jewish nation).
Then comes the turn of the last pair of pinions,
that is to say, of Nerva, the usurper, who succeeded,
the right hand head (Domitian) and is with regard to
Flavius in the same relation as Galba, Otho, and
Vitellius were with Julius. The last reign is short
and full of trouble ; it is less a reign than an arrange
ment made by God to bring about the end of the
world. In fact, after some moments, according to our
visionary, the last Anti-Caesar (Nerva) disappears ; the
body of the eagle takes fire, and all the earth is
stricken with astonishment. The end of the profane
world arrives, and the Messiah comes to overwhelm
the Roman Empire with the bitterest reproaches.
Thou hast reigned over the world by terror and not by truth ;
thou hast crushed the poor ; thou hast persecuted peaceable people ;
thou hast hated the just ; thou hast loved the liars ; thou hast
broken down the walls of those who have done thee no wrong.
Thy violences have gone up before the throne of the Eternal
God, and thy pride has reached even unto the Almighty. The
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 189
Most High hath regarded his table of the times and hast seen
that the measure is full and that the moment has arrived.
Wherefore thou shall disappear, O Eagle ! thou and thy horri
ble wings and thy accursed pinions, thy perverse heads and
thy detestable claws and all thy wicked body, so that the earth
may breathe again, may live again, delivered from tyranny,
and may begin to hope once more in the justice and mercy of
him who has done it.
The Romans will then be judged ; judged living, and
exterminated on the spot. Then the Jewish people
will breathe. God will preserve them in joy until the
Day of Judgment.
It will scarcely be doubted after this that the
author wrote during the reign of Nerva, a reign
which appeared without solidity or future, because of
the age and of the weakness of the sovereign, until
the adoption of Trajan (end of 97). The author of
the Apocalypse of Esdras, like the author of the
Apocalypse of John, ignorant of real politics, believes
that the Empire which he hates, and the infinite re
sources of which he does not see, is approaching the
end of its career. The authors of the two Revelations,
passionately Jewish, clap their hands in advance over
the ruin of their enemy. We shall see the same hopes
renewed after the reverses of Trajan in Mesopotamia.
Always on the look out for the moments of weak
ness on the part of the Empire, the Jewish party, at
the appearance of any black spot on the horizon,
break out in advance into shouts of triumph, and
applaud, by anticipation. The hope of a Jewish
Empire succeeding to the Roman Empire, still filled
these burning souls whom the frightful massacres of
the year 70 had not crushed. The author of the
Apocalypse of Esdras had perhaps in his youth fought
in Judea ; sometimes he appears to regret that he did
not find his death. We see that the fire is not extinct,
that it still lives in the ashes, and that before abandon
ing all hope, Israel will tempt her fortune more than
once. The Jewish revolts under Trajan and Adrian
190 I HE GOSPELS AND
will answer to this enthusiastic cry. The extermi
nation of Bether will be required to bring to reason
the new generation of revolutionaries who have risen
from the ashes of 70.
The fate of the Apocalypse of Esdras was as strange
as the work itself. Like the Book of Judith and
the discourse upon the Empire of Reason, it was
neglected by the Jews, in whose eyes every book
written in Greek became at once a foreign book ; but
immediately upon its appearance it was eagerly
adopted by the Christians, and accepted as a book of
the Canon of the Old Testament, really written by
Esdras. The author of the Epistle attributed to St
Barnabas, the author of the apocryphal epistle which
is called the Second of Peter, certainly read it. The
false Herman appears to imitate its plan, order, use of
visions, and turn of dialogue. Clement of Alexandria
makes a great show of it. The Greek Church, depart
ing further and further from Judeo-Christianity,
abandons it, and allows the original to be lost. The
Latin Church is divided. The learned doctors, such
as St Jerome, see the apocryphal character of the
whole composition, and reject it with disdain, whilst
St Ambrose makes more use of it than of no matter
what other holy book, and distinguishes it in no way
from the revealed Scriptures. Vigilance detects there
the germ of its heresy as to the uselessness of prayers
for the dead. The Liturgy borrows from it. Roger
Bacon quotes it with respect. Christopher Columbus
finds in it arguments for the existence of another world.
The enthusiasts of the sixteenth century nourish them
selves upon it. Antoinette Bourignon, the illumine e,
sees in it the most beautiful of the holy books.
In reality, few books have furnished so many
elements of Christian theology as this anti-Christian
work. Limbo, original sin, the small number of the
elect, the eternity of the pains of hell, the punishment
by fire, the free choice of God, have there found their
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 191
Crudest expression. If the terrors of death have been
greatly aggravated by Christianity, it is upon books
like this that the responsibility must rest. The
sombre office, so full of grandiose dreams, which the
Church recites over the coffins, appears to have been
inspired by the visions, or, if you choose, by the
nightmares of Esdras. Christian iconography itself,
borrowed much from these bizarre pages, in all that
relates to the representation of the state of the dead.
The Byzantine mosaics, and the miniatures which
offer representations of the Last Judgment, seem to be
based upon the description which our author gives of
the place of departed spirits. From its assertions
principally is derived the idea that Esdras recom-
posed the lost Scriptures. The angel Uriel owes to
him his place in Christian art. The addition of this
new celestial personage to Michael,. Gabriel, and
Raphael gives to the four corners of the Throne of
God, and consequently to the four cardinal points,
their respective guardians. The Council of Trent,
whilst excluding from the Latin Canon the book so
much admired by the Early Fathers, did not forbid it
to be reprinted at the end of the editions of the
Vulgate, in a different character.
If anything proves the promptitude with which
the false prophecy of Esdras was received by the
Christians, it is the use which was made of it in the
little treatise of Alexandrian exegesis, imitated from
the Epistle to the Hebrews, to which the name of
Barnabas was attached from a very early date. The
author of this treatise cites the false Esdras as he
quotes Daniel, Enoch, and the old prophets. One
feature of Esdras is especially striking the wood
from which the blood flows in which is naturally
seen the image of the Cross. Now everything leads
us to believe that the treatise attributed to Barnabas
was composed, like the Apocalypse of Esdras, in the
reign of Nerva. The writer applies, or rather alters
192 THE GOSPELS AND
to make applicable to his time, a prophecy of Daniel
concerning ten reigns (Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius,
Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vespasian,
Titus), and a little king (Nerva), who shall humiliate
the three (Flavius), reduced to one (Domitian), who
have preceded him.
The facility with which the author has been able
to adopt the prophecy of the false Esdras, is so much
the more singular, since few Christian doctors express
as energetically as he the necessity for an absolute
separation from Judaism. The Gnostics in this respect
have said nothing stronger. The author presents
himself to us as an ex-Jew, well versed in the Ritual,
the agada, and the rabbinical disquisitions, but
strongly opposed to the religion which he has left.
Circumcision appears to him to have always been a
mistake of the Jews a misunderstanding into which
they have been betrayed by some perverse genius.
The Temple itself was a mistake ; the worship which
was practised in it was almost idolatrous ; it rested
wholly upon the Pagan idea that God could be shut
up in a house. The Temple destroyed through the
fault of the Jews, would never be re-erected ; the true
Temple is that spiritual house which is raised in the
hearts of Christians. Judaism, in general, has been
only an aberration, the work of a bad angel, who has
led the Jews in opposition to the commands of God.
What the author fears most is lest the Christian
should have only the air of a Jewish proselyte. All
has been changed by Jesus, even the Sabbath. The
Sabbath formerly represented the end of the world ;
transplanted to the first day of the week, it represents,
by the joy with which it is celebrated, the opening of
a new world inaugurated by the resurrection and
ascension of Jesus Christ. Sacrifices and the Law are
alike at an end. The whole of the Old Testament
was but a symbol. The cross of Jesus solves all pro
blems ; the author finds it everywhere, by means of
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 193
bizarre ghematrioth. The Passion of Jesus is the
propitiatory sacrifice of which others were merely the
image. The taste which Egypt, ancient Egypt and
Jewish Egypt, had for allegories, appears to revive
in these explanations, wherein it is impossible to see
anything besides arbitrary turns. Like all the readers
of the apocalypses, the author believed that he was on
the eve of the Judgment. The times are evil ; Satan
has all power over earthly matters ; but the day is not
far distant when he and his will alike perish. " The
Lord is at hand with his recompense."
The scenes of disorder which followed each other
from day to day in the Empire gave, moreover, only
too much reason for the sombre predictions of the
pseudo-Esdras and the pretended Barnabas. The
reign of the feeble old man whom all parties had
agreed to put into power, in the hours of surprise
which followed the death of Domitian, was an agony.
The timidity with which he was reproached was
really sagacity. Nerva felt that the army always
regretted Domitian, and bore only with impatience
the domination of the civil element. Honest men
were in power, but the reign of honest men, when it
is not supported by an army, is always Veak. A
terrible incident showed the depth of the evil.
About the 27th October 97 the Praetorians, having
found a leader in Casperius ^Elianus, besieged the
palace, demanding with loud cries the punishment
of those who had slain Domitian. Nerva s some
what soft temperament was not suited to such
scenes. He virtuously offered his own life, but he
could not prevent the massacre of Parthenius and
of those who had made him Emperor. The day was
decisive, and saved the Republic. Nerva, like a wise
man, understood that he ought to associate with him
self a young captain whose energy should supply
what he was deficient in. He had relations, but,
attentive only to the good of the state, he sought
N
194 THE GOSPELS AND
the worthiest. The Liberal party counted amongst
its members an admirable soldier, Trajan, who then
commanded upon the Rhine at Cologne. Nerva chose
him. This great act of political virtue assured the
victory of the Liberals, which had remained always
doubtful since the death of Domitian. The true law
of Caesarism, adoption, was found. The military were
bridled. Logic required that a Septimus Severus, with
his detestable maxim, " Please the soldier ; mock
at the rest," should succeed Domitian. Thanks to
Trajan, the catastrophe of history was adjourned and
retarded for a century. The evil was conquered,
not for a thousand years, as John believed, nor even
for four hundred years, as the pseudo-Esdras dreamed,
but for a hundred years which is much.
CHAPTER XVII.
TRAJAN THE GOOD AND GREAT EMPERORS.
THE adoption of Trajan assured to civilised humanity
after cruel trials a century of happiness. The Empire
was saved. The malignant predictions of the apoca
lypse makers were completely contradicted. The
world still desired to live : the Empire, in spite of the
fall of the Julii and the Flavii, found in its strong mili
tary organisation resources which the superficial pro
vincials never suspected. Trajan, whom the choice of
Nerva was to carry to the Imperial throne, was a very
great man, a true Roman, master of himself, cool in
command, of a grave and dignified bearing. He had
certainly less political genius than a Caesar, an
Augustus, a Tiberius, but he was their superior in
justice and in goodness, while in military talent, he
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 195
was the equal of Caesar. He made no profession of
philosophy like Marcus Aurelius, but he equalled him
in practical wisdom and benevolence. His firm faith
in Liberalism never faltered ; he showed, by an
illustrious example, that the heroically optimist party
which makes us admit that men are good when they
are not proved to be bad, may be reconciled with the
firmness of a sovereign. Surprising thing ! this world
of idealogues and of men of opposition, whom the
death of Domitian carried into power, knew how to
govern. He frankly reconciled himself to the neces
sity, and it was then seen how excellent a thing is a
monarchy made by converted Republicans. The old
Virginius Rufus, the great citizen who had dreamed
all his life of a Republic, and who did all that he
could to get it proclaimed at the death of Nero as it
had been at the death of Caligula, Virginius illus
trious for having many times refused the Empire, was
completely won over, and served as a centre for that
distinguished society. The Radical party renounced
its dream, and admitted that if the principate and
liberty had until then been irreconcilable, the happi
ness of the times had made such a miracle easy.
Galba had been the first to recognise that combina
tion of apparently contradictory elements. Nerva
and Trajan realised it. The Empire with them became
Republican, or rather the Emperor was the first and
only Republican in the Empire. The great men who
are praised in the world which surrounds the sovereign
are Thrasea, Helvidius, Senecion, Cato, Brutus, the
Greek heroes who expelled the tyrants from their
country. Therein lies the explanation of the fact that
after the year 98 nothing more is heard of protests
against the principate. The philosophers who had
been until then in some sort the soul of the Radical
opposition, and whose attitude had been so hostile
under the Flavii, suddenly held their peace : they were
satisfied. Between the new regime and philosophy
196 THE GOSPELS AND
there was an intimate alliance. It must be said that
never in the government of human affairs was to be
seen a group of men so worthy to preside. There were
Pliny, Tacitus, Virginius Rufus, Junius Mauricus,
Gratilla, Fannia, noble men, chaste women, all having
been persecuted by Domitian, all lamenting some
relation, some friend, victim of the abhorred reign.
The age of monsters had gone by. That haughty
race of the Julii, and the families which were allied to
them, had unfolded before the world the strangest
spectacle of folly, grandeur, and perversity. Hence
forward the bitterness of the Roman blood appears
exhausted. Rome has sweated away all her malice.
It is the peculiarity of an aristocracy which has lived
its life without restraint, to become in its old age
rigid, orthodox, puritan. The Roman nobility, the
most terrible that ever existed, is now distinguished
chiefly by refinements, extremes of virtue, delicacy,
modesty.
This transformation was in a great measure the
work of Greece. The Greek school] naster had suc
ceeded in making himself accepted by the Roman
noblesse, by dint of submitting to its pride, its coarse
ness, its contempt for matters of mind. In the time
of Julius Caesar, Sextius, the father, brought from
Athens to Rome the proud moral discipline of
Stoicism, the examination of conscience, asceticism,
abstinence, love of poverty. After him, Sextius, the
son, Sohon of Alexandria, Attala, Demetrius the cynic,
Metronax, Claranus, Fabianus, Seneca, gave the model
of an active and practical philosophy, employing all
means preaching, direction of conscience for the
propagation of virtue. The noble struggle of the
philosophers against Nero and Domitian, their banish
ments, their punishments, had all ended in making
them dear to the best Roman society. Their credit
continues increasing until the time of Marcus Aurelius,
under whom they reigned. The strength of a party is
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 197
always in proportion to the number of its martyrs.
Philosophy had had its own. It, like everything else
that was noble, had suffered from the abominable
governments under which it had existed ; it profited
by the moral reaction provoked by the excess of evil.
Then arose an idea dear to rhetoricians ; the tyrant,
born enemy of philosophy ; philosophy, the born
enemy of tyrants. All the masters of the Antonines
are full of this idea ; the good Marcus Aurelius passed
his youth in declaiming against the tyrants; the
horror for Nero and for those Emperors whom Pliny
the Elder called " the firebrands of the human race,"
fills the literature of the time. Trajan had always for
philosophers the greatest regard and the most delicate
attentions. Between Greek discipline and Roman
pride the alliance is henceforward intimate. "To
live as beseems a Roman and a man," is the dream
of everyone who respects himself ; Marcus Aurelius
is not yet born, but he is here morally ; the spiri
tual matrix from which he will issue, is completely
constructed.
Ancient philosophy assuredly had days of greater
originality, but it had never penetrated life and
society more deeply. The differences of the schools
were almost effaced ; general systems were abandoned ;
a superficial eclecticism, such as men of the world like
when they are anxious to do well, was the fashion.
The philosophy became oratorical, literary preaching
tending more towards moral amelioration than to
the satisfaction of curiosity. A host of persons
made it their rule and even the law of their ex
terior life. Musonius Rufus and Artemidorus were
true confessors of their faith, heroes of stoical virtue.
Euphrates of Tyre offered the ideal of the gentleman
philosopher, his person had a great charm, his manners
were of the rarest distinction. Dion Chrysostom
created a series of lectures akin to sermons, and
obtained immense successes, without ever falling short
198 THE GOSPELS AND
of the most elevated tone. The good Plutarch wrote
for the future, Morality in Action, of good sense, of
honesty, and imagined that Greek antiquity, gentle
and paternal, little resembling the true (which was
resplendent with beauty, liberty, and genius), but
better suited than the true to the necessities of educa
tion. Epictetus himself had the words of eternity,
and took his place by the side of Jesus, not upon
the golden mountains of Galilee, enlightened by the
sun of the kingdom of God, but in the ideal world
of perfect virtue. Without a resurrection, without
a chimerical Tabor, without a kingdom of God, he
preached self-sacrifice, renunciation, abnegation. He
was the sublime snow point which humanity con
templates with a sort of terror on its horizon ; Jesus
had the more lovable part of God amongst men a
smile, gaiety, forgiveness of sins were permitted
to him.
Literature, on its side, having become all at once
grave and worthy, exhibits an immense progress in
the manners of good society. Quintilian already, in
the worst days of the reign of Domitian, had laid out
the code of oratorical probity which ought to be in
such perfect accord with our greatest minds of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Rollin, M.M.
de Port Royal. Now literary honesty never goes alone ;
it is only serious ages that can have a serious litera
ture. Tacitus wrote history with a high aristocratic
sense, which did not save him from errors of detail, but
which inspired him with those outbursts of virtuous
passion which have made of him for all eternity
the spectre of tyrants. Suetonius prepared himself,
by labours of solid erudition, for his part of exact and
impartial biographer. Pliny, a man of good birth,
liberal, humane, charitable, refined, founds schools
and public libraries ; he might be a Frenchman of
the most amiable society of the eighteenth century.
Juvenal, sincere in declamation, and moral in his
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 1 99
painting of vice, has fine accents of humanity, and
preserves, notwithstanding the stains on his life, a
sentiment of Roman pride. It was like a tardy
flowering of the beautiful intellectual culture, created
by the collaboration of the Greek and the Italian
genius. That culture was already stricken with
death at the root ; but before dying, it produced a
last crop of leaves and flowers.
The world is then at last to be governed by reason.
Philosophy will enjoy for a hundred years the right
which it is credited with of rendering people happy.
A great number of excellent laws, forming the best
part of the Roman law, are of this date. Public as
sistance begins ; children are, above all, the object of
the solicitude of the State. A real moral sentiment
animates the government ; never before the eighteenth
century was so much done for the amelioration of the
condition of the human race. The Emperor is a god
accomplishing his journey upon earth, and signalising
his passage by benefits.
Such a system must, of course, differ greatly from
what we consider as essentially a Liberal government.
We should seek vainly for any trace of parliamentary
or representative institutions : the state of the world
was incompatible with such things. The opinion of
the politicians of the time is that power belongs, by a
sort of natural delegation, to honest, sensible, moderate
men. That designation was made by the fatum;
when it was once accepted, the Emperor governs the
Empire as the ram conducts his troop, and the bull
his herd. By the side of this a language altogether
Republican. With the best faith in the world these
excellent sovereigns thought that they would be able
to realise a State founded upon the natural equality
of all citizens, a royalty having as its basis respect
for liberty. Liberty, justice, respect for opponents,
were their fundamental maxims. But these words,
borrowed from the history of the Greek Republics,
200 THE GOSPELS AND
where letters were cultivated, had but little meaning
in the real society of the time. Civil equality did not
exist. The difference between rich and poor was
written in the law, the Roman or Italiote aristocracy
preserved all its privileges ; the Senate, re-established
in its rights and dignity by Nerva, remained as much
walled in as it had ever been ; the cursus honorum
was the exclusive privilege of the nobility. The good
Roman families have reconquered their exclusive
predominance in politics : outside of them, it does not
happen.
The victory of these families was assuredly a just
victory, for under the odious reigns of Nero and
Domitian they had given an asylum to virtue, to self-
respect, to the instinct of reasonable command, to good
literary and philosophical education ; but these same
families, as usually happens, formed a very closely-
enclosed world. The advent of Nerva and Trajan,
which was the work of an aristocratic, Liberal-Con
servative party, put an end to two things barrack
troubles, and the importance of the Orientals, the
domestics, and favourites of the Emperors. The
freedmen, people of Egypt and Syria, will no longer
be able to trouble all that is best in Rome. These
wretches, who made themselves masters by their guilty
complaisances in the reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and
Nero, who had even been the counsellors and the
confidants of the debaucheries of Titus before his
accession, fell into contempt. The irritation which
the Romans felt at the honours decreed to a Herod
Agrippa, to a Tiberius Alexander, was not again felt
after the fall of Flavius. The Senate increased as
much in power ; but the action of the provinces was
lessened ; the attempts to break the ice of the official
world were almost reduced to impotence.
Hellenism did not suffer ; for it knew by its supple
ness or by its high distinction how to make itself
acceptable to the best of the Roman world.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 201
Judaism and Christianity suffered for it. We have
seen on two occasions in the first century, under Nero
and under the Flavii, Jews and Christians approach
the house of the Emperor, and exercise considerable
influence there. From Nerva to Commodus they
were a thousand leagues apart. For one thing, the
Jews had no nobility; the worldly Jews, like the
Herodians, the Tiberius Alexanders, were dead ; every
Jew is henceforward d fanatic separated from the
rest of the world by an abyss of contempt. A mass
of impurities, ineptitudes, absurdities that is what
Mosaism was for the most enlightened men of the
time. The Jews appeared to be at the same time
superstitious and irreligious; atheists devoted to the
most vulgar beliefs. Their religion appeared like
a world turned upside down, a defiance of reason, a
pledge to contradict in everything the customs of
other people. Travestied in a grotesque fashion, their
history served a theme for endless pleasantries ; it
was generally thought to be a form of the worship of
Bacchus. " Antiochus," it was said, " tried in vain to
improve this detestable race." One accusation especi
ally that of hating all who were not of them, was
murderous, for it was based upon specious motives
of a kind to mislead public opinion. Still more dan
gerous was the idea according to which the proselyte
who attached himself to Mosaism learned as his first
lesson to despise the gods, to cast off every patriotic
sentiment, to forget parents, children, and friends.
Their benevolence, it was said, was but egotism ; their
morality only apparent ; amongst them everything is
permitted.
Trajan, Adrian, Antonine, Marcus Aurelius, held
themselves in this way with regard to Judaism and
to Christianity in a sort of haughty isolation. They
did not know it ; they did not care to study it.
Tacitus, who wrote for the great world, speaks of the
Jews as an exotic curiosity, totally ignored by those
202 THE GOSPELS AND
to whom he addresses himself, and his errors are
surprising. The exclusive confidence of these noble
minds in the Roman discipline rendered them care
less of a doctrine which presented itself to them as
foreign and absurd. History ought to speak only
with respect of honest and courageous politicians
who lifted the world out of the mire into which it
had been cast by the last Julius and the last Flavius ;
but they had imperfections which were really the re
sult of their qualities. They were aristocrats, men of
traditions, of the race of English Tories, drawing their
strength from their very prejudices. They were
profoundly Roman. Persuaded that no man who
is not rich or well-born can possibly be an honest
man, they did not feel for the foreign doctrines that
weakness which the Flavii, men of lower birth, could
not avoid. Their surroundings, the society which rose
into power along with them Tacitus, Pliny have
the same contempt for the barbarous doctrines. A
ditch seems to have been dug during the-whole of the
second century between Christianity and the special
world. The four great and good Emperors are clearly
hostile to it, and it is under the monster Commodus
that we find once more, as under Claudius, under
Nero, and under the Flavii, " Christians of the House
of Caesar." The defects of these virtuous Emperors
are those of the Romans themselves, too much con
fidence in the Latin tradition, a disagreeable obstinacy
in not admitting honour out of Rome, much pride and
harshness towards the humble, the poor, foreigners,
Syrians, and for all the people whom Augustus disdain
fully called " the Greeks," and to whom he permitted
adulations forbidden to the Italiots. These outcasts
took their revenge, showing that they also have their
nobility and are capable of virtue.
The question of liberty is thus raised as it has never
been raised before in any of the republics of antiquity.
The ancient city, which was only an enlarged family,
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 203
could have only one religion, that of the city itself ;
that religion was almost always the worship of mythi
cal founders, of the very idea of the city. When it
was not practised, the idea of the city was excluded.
Such a religion was logical even when it was intoler
ant ; but Alexander had been unreasonable. Anti-
ochus Epiphanes was so in the highest degree, in
wishing to persecute to the profit of a particular
religion, since their States resulting from conquest
formed various cities whose political existence had
been suppressed. Cassar, with his marvellous lucidity
of mind, understood that. Then the narrow idea
of the Roman city regained the ascendency, feebly
and by short intermissions in the first century, in a
manner much followed in the second. Already under
Tiberius, a Valerius Maximus, maker of indifferent
books, and a dishonest man, preached the religion
with an astonishing air of conviction. We have seen
even Domitian extend a powerful protection to the
Latin religion, attempt a sort of union of " the throne
and the altar." All that sprang out of a sentiment
analogous to that which attaches to the Catholicism
of our own days, a host of people who believe very
little, but who are convinced that this worship is the
religion of France. Martial and Statius, gazetteers
of the scandalous chronicle of the times, who at
heart regret the fine times of Nero, become grave
and religious, applaud the censorship of manners,
preach respect for authority. Social and political
crises usually have the effect of provoking political
reactions of this kind. Society in peril attaches it
self where it can. A threatened world ranges itself
in order of battle ; convinced that every thought
turns to evil, becomes timid, holds its breath as it
were, since it fears that every movement may over
throw the frail edifice which serves it as shelter.
Trajan and his successors scarcely cared to renew
the sad excess of sneaking hypocrisy which charac-
204 THE GOSPELS AND
terised the reign of Domitian. Yet these princes
and their surroundings showed themselves very Con
servative in religion. They saw salvation only in
the old Roman spirit. Marcus Aurelius, philosopher
though he was, is in no way exempt from supersti
tion. He is a rigid observer of the official religion.
The brotherhood of the Salii had no more devout
member. He affected to imitate Numa, from whom
he claimed to be descended, and maintained with
severity the laws which forbade foreign religions.
Devotions on the eve of death ! The day when one
holds most to these memories is the day that in which
they go astray. How much injury has accrued to
the House of Bourbon through thinking too much of
St Louis, and claiming to be descended from Cloris
and Charlemagne !
To that strong preference for the national worship
was joined, with the great emperors of the second
century, the fear of the heteria, ccetus iUiciti, or
associations which might become factions in the cities.
A simple body of firemen were suspected. Too many
people at a family festivity disquieted the authorities.
Trajan required that the invitations should be limited
and given by name. Even the associations ad sus-
tinendam tenuiorium inopiam were permitted only
in the cities which had special charters for the purpose.
In that matter Trajan followed the tradition of all the
great Emperors after Caesar. It is impossible that
such measures could have appeared necessary to such
great men if they had not been justified in some
respects. But the administrative spirit of the second
century was carried to excess. Instead of practising
public benevolence, as the State had begun to do, how
much better it would have been to leave the associa
tions free to exercise it ! These associations aspired
to spring up in all parts : the State was full of injustice
and harshness for them. It wanted peace at any
price, but peace, when it is based by authority on the
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 205
suppression of private effort, is more prejudicial to
society than the very troubles of which it is desired
to get rid by the sacrifice of all liberty.
In that lies the cause of that phenomenon, in itself
so singular, of Christianity being found worse under
the wise administration of the great emperors of the
second century than under the furious rage with
which the scoundrels of the first attacked it. The
violences of Nero, of Domitian, lasted only a few
weeks or months ; they were either passing acts of
brutality or else the results of annoyances springing out
of a fantastic and shady policy. In the interval
which passed between the appearance of Christianity
and the accession of Trajan, never once do we find the
criminal law put in force against Christians. Legis
lation on the subject of the illicit colleges already
existed in part, but it was never applied with so much
rigour as was done later. On the contrary, the very
legal but very governmental rule (as we should say
nowadays) of the Trajans and the Antonines, will be
more oppressive to Christianity than the ferocity and
the wickedness of the tyrants. These great Conser
vatives of things Roman will perceive, not without
reason, a serious danger to the Empire in that too firm
faith in a kingdom of God which is the inversion of
existing society. The theocratic element which under
lies Judaism and Christianity alike terrifies them.
They see indistinctly but certainly what the Decii,
the Aurelians, the Diocletians will see more clearly
after them, all the restorers of the Empire failing
in the third century, that a choice must be made
between the Empire and the Church, that full liberty
of the Church means the end of the Empire. They
struggle as a matter of duty ; they allow a harsh law
to be applied, since it is the condition of the existence
of society in their time. Thus a fair understanding
with Christianity was much more remote than under
Nero or under Flavius. Public men had felt the
206 THE GOSPELS AND
danger, and stood on guard. Stoicism had grown
more rigid ; the world was no longer for tender souls
full of feminine sentiments like Virgil. The disciples
of Jesus have now to deal with stern men, inflexible
doctrinaires, men sure of being right, capable of being
systematically harsh, since they can give proof of
acting only for the good of the State, and of saying,
with an imperturbable gentleness, " What is not use
ful to the swarm is no more useful to the bee."
Assuredly, according to our ideas, Trajan and Marcus
Aurelius would have done better had they been
Liberals altogether, had they fully conceded the right
of association, of recognising corporations as being
capable of holding property ; free, in case of schism, to
divide the property of the corporation amongst the
members, in proportion to the number of adherents to
each party. This last point would have been sufficient
to get rid of all danger. Already in the third century
it is the Empire which maintains the unity of the
Church in making it a rule that he shall be regarded
as the true bishop of a church in any city who
corresponds with the Bishop of Rome, and is recog
nised by him. What would have happened in the
fourth, in the midst of those embittered struggles with
Arianism ? Numberless and irremediable schisms.
The emperors, and then the barbarian kings, alone
could put an end to the matter by limiting the
question of orthodoxy to "who was the canonical
bishop ? " Corporations not connected with the State
are never very formidable to the State, when the
State remains really neutral, does not assume the
office of judge of the denominations, and in the legal
proceedings before it for the possession of goods,
observes the rule of dividing the capital in strict
proportion to numbers. Thus all associations which
might become dangerous to the peace of the State may
readily be dissolved; division will reduce them to
dust. The authority of the State alone can cause
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 207
schisms in bodies of this kind to cease ; the neutrality
of the State renders them incurable. The Liberal
system is the surest solvent of too powerful associa
tions, as has been proved on many occasions. But
Trajan and Marcus Aurelius did not know this.
Their error in this as in so many other points where
we find their legislative work defective, was one which
centuries alone could correct.
Permanent persecution by the State. Such, then, is
in brief the story of the era which is now opening for
Christianity. It has been thought sometimes that
there was a special edict in these terms : Non licet
esse Christianas, which served as basis for all the pro
ceedings against the Christians. It is possible, but it
is not necessary, to suppose that there was. Christians
were, by the very fact of their existence, in conflict
with the laws concerning association. They were
guilty of sacrilege, of Use majeste, of nightly meet
ings. They could not render to the Emperor the
honours which a loyal subject should. Now the crime
of lese majeste was punished with the most cruel
tortures : no one accused of the crime was exempt
from the torture. And there was that sombre cate
gory of flagitia nomini cohcerentia, crimes which it
was not necessary to prove, which the name of
Christian alone was supposed to be sufficient to prove
a priori, and which entailed the character of hostis
publicus. Such crimes were officially prosecuted.
Such, in particular, was the crime of arson, constantly
kept in mind by the remembrance of 64, and also by
the persistence with which the apocalypses returned
to the idea of a final conflagration. To this was
joined the constant suspicion of secret infamies, of
nightly meetings, of guilty commerce with women,
young girls, and children. From thence to judge the
Christians capable of every crime and to attribute to
them all misdeeds, was but one step, and that step the
crowd rather than the magistracy took every day.
208 THE GOSPELS AND
When to all this is added the terrible discretion
which was left to the judges, especially in the choice
of punishment, and it will be understood how, without
exceptional laws, without special legislation, it was
possible to produce the desolating spectacle which the
history of the Roman Empire presents at its best
periods. The law may be applied with greater or less
rigour, but it is still the law. This condition of things
will last like a low and slow fever throughout the
second century, with intervals of exasperation and
remission in the third. It will end only with the
terrible outburst of the first years of the fourth
century, and will be definitely closed by the edict of
Milan of 313. Every revival of the Roman spirit will
be a redoubling of persecution. The emperors who,
on divers occasions in the fourth century, undertook
to restore the Empire, are the persecutors. The
tolerant emperors Alexander, Severus, Philip are
those who have no Roman blood in their veins, and
who sacrifice Latin traditions to the cosmopolitanism
of the East
Venerate the Divine in all things and everywhere, accord
ing to the usages of the nation, and force others to honour him.
Hate and punish the partisans of foreign ceremonies, not merely
out of respect for the gods, but especially because those who
introduce new divinities thereby spread the taste for foreign
customs, which leads to conjurations, to coalitions to associations,
things which agree in no way with the Monarchy. Neither
permit any man to profess at atheism or magic. Divination is
necessary ; let augurs and auspices be officially named, therefore,
to whom those who wish to consult them may address them
selves, but let there be no free magicians, for such persons,
mixing some truths with many lies, may urge the citizens to
rebellion. The same thing may be said of many of those who
call themselves philosophers ; beware of them ; they only do
mischief to private persons and to the peoples.
It was in such terms that a statesman of the
generation which followed the Antonines summed up
their religious policy. As in a time nearer to our
own, the State thought itself to be displaying immense
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 209
ability when it made use o superstition as a means of
government. The municipalities enjoyed the same
right by delegation. Religion was only a simple affair
of the police, a system of absolute isolation, where
every movement is repressed, where every individual
act is accounted dangerous, where the isolated indi
vidual, without a religious bond with other men, is no
more than a purely official being, placed between a
family reduced to the paltriest proportions and a
state too great to be a country, to form the mind, to
make the heart beat ; such was the ideal which was
dreamed of. Everything that was thought capable of
affecting men, of producing emotion, was a crime
which was to be prevented by death or exile. It was
in this way that the Roman Empire killed the antique
life, killed the soul, killed science, formed that school
of heavy and restricted minds, of narrow politics,
which, under the pretence of abolishing superstition,
brought about in reality the triumph of theocracy.
A great intellectual decline was the result of these
efforts to restore a faith which no one held. A sort of
commonplaceness spread itself over beliefs, and took
away from them everything that was serious. Free
thinkers, innumerable in the century before and the
century after Jesus Christ, diminished in numbers and
disappeared. The easy tone of the great Latin litera
ture was lost, and gave place to a heavy credulity.
Science extinguished itself from day to day. After
the death of Seneca it could hardly be said that there
was a single savant who was altogether a rationalist.
Pliny the elder is curious, but is no critic. Tacitus,
Pliny the younger, Suetonius, avoid all expression of
opinion on the inanity of the most ridiculous imagina
tion. Pliny the younger believes in childish ghost
stories. Epictetus desires to practise the established
religion. Even a writer as frivolous as Apuleius
believes himself, when the gods are in question,
obliged to take the tone of a rigid Conservative. A
210 THE GOSPELS AND
single man about the middle of this century appears
altogether free from supernatural beliefs Lucan.
The scientific spirit which is the negation of the
supernatural, exists no longer save amongst an ex
tremely small number; superstition invades every
thing, enervates all reason.
Whilst religion was corrupting philosophy, philo
sophy sought for apparent reconciliations with the
supernatural. A foolish and hollow theology, mixed
with imposture, came into fashion. Apuleius will soon
call the philosophers "the priests of all the gods."
Alexander of Abonotica will found a religion upon
conjuring tricks. Religious quackery, miracle-monger-
ing, relieved by a false varnish of philosophy, became
the fashion. Apollonius of Tyana afforded the first
example of it, although it would be difficult to say
who this singular personage was in reality, It was at
a later date that he was imagined to be a religious
revealer, a sort of philosophical demi-god. Such was
the promptitude of the decadence of the human mind
that a wretched theurgist who, in the time of Trajan,
would hardly have been accepted by the Gapers of
Asia Minor, became a hundred years afterwards,
thanks to shameless writers, who used him to amuse
a public fallen altogether into credulity, a personage
of the first order, a divine incarnation whom they
dared to compare with Jesus.
Public instruction obtained from the emperors much
more attention than under the Csesars and even under
the Flavii ; but there was no question of literature ;
the grand discipline of the mind which comes especi
ally from science will obtain from these professors
but little profit. Philosophy was specially favoured
by Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius ; but philosophy,
which is the supreme object of life, which includes
everything else, can scarcely be taught by the State.
In any case, that instruction affected the people very
little. It was something abstract and elevated, some
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 211
thing which passed over their heads, and as, on the
other hand, the Temple gave nothing of that moral
teaching which the Church has more recently dis
pensed, the lower classes stagnated in a deplorable
condition of abandonment. All this implies no
reproach upon the great emperors who did not suc
ceed in the impossible task of saving the ancient
civilisation. Time failed them. One evening, after hav
ing endured during the day the assault of declaimers
who promised him an infinite glory if he converted
the world to philosophy, Marcus Aurelius wrote upon
his tablets the following reflection, for his own use
only : " The universal cause is a torrent which draws
all things with it. How simple are these pretended
politicians who imagine that they can manage affairs
by the maxims of philosophy. They are children
who are babbling still. Do not hope that there will
ever be a Republic of Plato ; content thyself with
small improvements, and if thou succeedest, do not
imagine that that will be a small thing. Who can
in effect change the inward dispositions of men ?
And without the change of hearts and of opinions, of
what avail is all the rest ? Thou wilt never do more
than make slaves and hypocrites. The work of phil
osophy is a simple and a modest thing : far from
us be all this pretentious gibberish?" Ah! honest
man !
To sum up ! Notwithstanding all its defects, society
in the second century was making progress. There
was intellectual decadence but moral improvement, as
appears to be the case in our own days in the upper
ranks of French society. The ideas of charity, of
assistance to the poor, of disgust at the (gladiatorial)
spectacles, increased everywhere. So much did this
excellent spirit preside over the destinies of the
Empire, that at the death of Marcus Aurelius Christi
anity seemed to be brought to a standstill. It pressed
forward, on the contrary, with an irresistible move-
212 THE GOSPELS AND
ment when in the third century the noble maxims of
the Antonlnes were forgotten. As we have already
said, Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus, Marcus
Aurelius, prolonged the life of the emperors for a
hundred years ; we may almost say that they retarded
the advance of Christianity for the same time. The
progress which Christianity made in the first and in
the third centuries was gigantic as compared with
that of the second. In the second century, Chris
tianity was confronted by a great force, that of prac
tical philosophy labouring rationally for the ameliora
tion of human society. From the time of Commodus,
individual egotism, and what may be called the
egotism of the State, left no place for ideal aspirations
except in the Church. The Church thus became the
asylum of all the heart and soul ; shortly after, civil
and political life concentrated themselves equally
within it.
CHAPTEK XVIII.
EPHESUS THE OLD AGE OF JOHN CERINTHUS
DOCETISM.
DOUBT, which is never absent from this history, be
comes always an opaque cloud when it is a question
of Ephesus and of the dark passions which agitated
it. We have admitted as probable the traditional
opinion, according to which the Apostle John, surviv
ing the majority of the disciples of Jesus, having
escaped from the storms of Rome and Judea succes
sively, took refuge in Ephesus, and there lived to an
advanced age, surrounded with the respect of all the
Churches of Asia. Irenseus, without doubt, on the
TfiE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. Si 3
authority of Polycarp, affirming that the old Apostle
lived until the reign of Trajan, appears to us to
have even heard him. If these facts are true, they
must have had grave consequences. The memory of
the punishment which John had escaped at Rome,
caused him to be classed amongst the martyrs even
during his lifetime, in the same way as his brother
James. In connecting the words in which Jesus had
announced that the generation which listened to him
should not pass away before his appearance in the
clouds, with the great age which the only surviving
Apostle of Jesus had attained, the logical idea that
that disciple should never die was arrived at that
is to say, that he would see the inauguration of the
Kingdom of God without first tasting death. John
related, or allowed it to be believed, that Jesus after
his resurrection had had on that subject an enig
matical conversation with Peter. Hence resulted for
John, in his very lifetime, a sort of marvellous halo.
Legend began to deal with him even before the grave
received him.
The old Apostle, in these last years veiled in mys
tery, appears to have been much beset. Miracles
and even resurrections from the dead were ascribed
to him. A circle of disciples gathered around him.
What passed in that private ccenaculum? What
traditions were elaborated there ? What stories did
the old man tell ? Did he not soften in his last days
the strong antipathy which he had always shown to
the disciples of Paul ? In his narratives did he not
seek, as happened more than once in the lifetime of
Jesus, to ascribe to himself the first place by the
side of his Master, to put himself nearest to His
heart? Did some of the doctrines which were de
scribed later as Johannian begin already to be dis
cussed between the aged and weary master and the
young arid bright spirits in search of novelties, seeking
perhaps to persuade the old man that he had always
214 THE GOSPELS AND
had on his own account the ideas which they sug
gested ? We do not know ; and here is one of the
gravest difficulties which encompass the origin of
hristianity. This time, in effect, it is not only the
exaggeration and the uncertainty of the legends of
which we have to complain. There was probably in
the bosom of that delusive Church of Ephesus a dis
position towards dissimulation and pious frauds which
has made the task of the critic who is called upon to
disentangle such confusion, singularly difficult.
Philo, at about the time when Jesus lived, had de
veloped a philosophy of Judaism, which, although pre
pared by previous speculations of Israelitish thinkers,
took under his pen only a definite form. The basis
of that philosophy was a sort of abstract metaphysic,
introducing into the one God various hypostases, and
making of the Divine Reason (in Greek Logos, in
Syro-Chaldaic Memera) a sort of distinct principle
from the Eternal Father. Egypt and Phoenicia al
ready knew of similar doublings of one same God.
The Hermetic Books were later to erect the theology
of the hypostases into a philosophy parallel to that
of Christianity. Jesus appears to have been left out
of these speculations, which, had he known of them,
would have had few charms for his poetic imagina
tion and his loving heart. His school, on the con
trary, was, so to speak, besieged by it ; Apollos was
perhaps no stranger to it. St Paul, in the latter part
of his life, appears to have allowed himself to be
greatly preoccupied with it. The apocalypse gives
us the mysterious name of its triumphant Aoyog rov
&sou. Judeo-Christianity, faithful to the spirit of
orthodox Judaism, did not allow such ideas to enter
their midst, save in the most limited fashion. But
when the Churches out of Syria were more and more
detached from Judaism, the invasion of the new spirit
was accomplished with an irresistible forced Jesus,
who at first had been for his hearers only as a pro-
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 215
phet, a Son of God, in whom the most exalted had
seen the Messiah or that Son of Man whom the
pseudo-Daniel had shown as the brilliant centre of
future apparitions, became now the Logos, the Reason,
the Word of God. Ephesus appears to have been the
place where this fashion of regarding the part of
Jesus took the deepest root, and from which it spread
over the Christian world.
It is not in effect with the Apostle John alone that
tradition connects the solemn promulgation of this
novel dogma. Around John tradition shows us his
doctrine raising storms, troubling consciences, provok
ing schisms and anathemas. About the time at which
we have arrived, there appeared at Ephesus, coming
from Alexandria like another Apollos, a man who
appears, after a generation, to have had many points
of likeness with this last. The man in question was
Cerinthus, which others call Merinthas, without its
being possible to know what mystery is hidden under
that assonance. Like Apollus, Cerinthus was born a
Jew, and before becoming acquainted with Christianity
had been imbued with the Judeo-Alexanclrine philo
sophy. He embraced the faith of Jesus in a manner
altogether different from that of the good Israelites
who believed the kingdom of God realised in the
Idyll of Nazareth, and of the pious Pagans, whom a
secret attraction drew towards that mitigated form of
Judaism. His mind, besides, appears to have had little
fixity, and to have been willingly carried from one
extreme to the other. Sometimes his conceptions
approached those of the Ebionites; sometimes they
inclined to millenarianism ; sometimes they floated in
pure gnosticism, or presented an analogy with those
of Philo. The creator of the world and the author of
the Jewish law the God of Israel, in short was not
the Eternal Father ; he was an angel, a sort of demi
god, subordinated to the great and Almighty God.
The spirit of this great God, long unknown to the
U6 THE GOSPELS AND
world, has been revealed only in Jesus. The Gospel
of Cerinthus was the Gospel of the Hebrews, without
doubt translated into Greek. One of the characteristic
features of the Gospel was the account of the baptism
of Jesus, after which a divine spirit, the spirit of
prophecy, at that solemn moment descended upon
Jesus, and raised him to a dignity which he had not
previously had. Cerinthus thought that even until
his baptism Jesus was simply a man, the most just
and the most wise of men it is true ; by his baptism,
the spirit of the omnipotent God came to dwell in
him. The mission of Jesus thus become the Christ,
was to reveal the Supreme God by his preaching and
his miracles ; but it was not true in that way of seeing
him that the Christ had suffered upon the Cross;
before the Passion, the Christ, impassible by nature,
separated himself from the man Jesus ; he alone was
crucified, died and rose again. At other times
Cerinthus denied even the Resurrection, and pre
tended that Jesus would rise again with all the world
at the Day of Judgment.
That doctrine, which we have already found at
least in germ amongst many of the families of the
Ebionim, whose propaganda was carried on beyond the
Jordan in Asia, and which in fifty years Narcion and
the Gnostics would take up with greater vigour,
appeared a frightful scandal to the Christian con
science. In separating from Jesus the fantastic being
called Christos, it did nothing less than divide the
person of Jesus, carrying off all personality from the
most beautiful part of his active life, since the Christ
found himself to have been in him only as something
foreign and impersonal to him. It was thought in
deed that the friends of Jesus, those who had seen
and loved him, child, young man, martyr, corpse,
would be indignant. The memories presented Jesus
to them as amiable as God, from one moment to
mother ; they wished that he should be adopted and
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION 217
revered altogether. John, it would seem, rejected the
doctrines of Cerinthus with wrath. His fidelity to a
childish affection might alone excuse certain fanatical
traits which are attributed to him, and which, besides,
appear to have been not out of keeping with his
habitual character. One day on entering the bath at
Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus, he exclaimed:
" Let us fly ; the building will fall in, since Cerinthus,
the enemy of the truth, is there ! " These violent
hatreds produce sectaries. He who loves much, hates
much.
On all sides the difficulty of reconciling the two
parts of Jesus, of causing to co-exist in the same
being the wise man and the Christ, produced imagi
nations like those which excited the wrath of John.
Docetism was, if we may so express it, the heresy
of the time. Many could not admit that the Christ
had been crucified and laid in the tomb. Some like
Cerinthus admitted a sort of intermittance in the
divine work of Jesus; others supposed that the
body of Jesus had been fantastic, that all his material
life, above all, his life of suffering, had been but
apparitional. These imaginations came from the
opinion, very wide spread at that period, that matter
is a fall, a degradation of the spirit ; that the material
manifestation is the degradation of the idea. The
Gospel history is thus volatilised as it were into
something impalpable. It is curious that Islamism,
which is only a sort of Arab prolongation of Judeo-
Christianity, should have adopted this idea about
Jesus. At Jerusalem, in particular, the Mussulmans
have always denied absolutely that Isa died upon
Golgotha; they pretend that someone like him was
crucified in his stead. The supposed place of the
Ascension upon the Mount of Olives is for the
Shaykhs the true Holy Place of Jerusalem con-
nected with Isa, for it is there that the impassible.
Messiah, born of the sacred breath and not of the
218 THE GOSPELS ANft
flesh, appeared for the last time united to the appear
ance which he had chosen.
Whatever he may have been, Cerinthus became in
the Christian tradition a sort of Simon Magus, a
personage almost fabulous, the typical representative
of Docetic Christianity, brother of Ebionite and
Judeo-Christian Christianity. As Simon Magus was
the sworn enemy of Peter, Cerinthus was considered
to be the bitter opponent of Paul. He was put on
the same footing as Ebion ; there was soon a habit
of not separating them, and as Ebion was the ab
stract personification of the Judeo-Christian-speaking
Hebrew, Cerinthus became a sort of generic word
to designate Judeo - Christianity - speaking Greek.
Phrases like the following were coined : " Who dares
to reproach Peter with having admitted Pagans into
the Church ? Who showered insults upon Paul ?
Who provoked a sedition against Titus the uncir-
cumcised ? It was Ebion : it was Cerinthus "
phrases which, taken literally, cause it to be supposed
that Cerinthus had had a part in Jerusalem in the
earliest ages of the Church. As Cerinthus has left no
writings, the ecclesiastical tradition went on in all
that concerned him from one inexactitude to another.
In this tissue of contradictions there is not one word
of truth. Cerinthus was really the first heretic, the
author of a doctrine destined to remain a dead branch
in the great tree of the Christian doctrine. In oppos
ing itself to him, in denying his claims, the Christian
Church made the greatest step towards the constitu
tion of an orthodox faith.
By these struggles, and these contradictions in
effect, Christian theology developed itself. The person
of Jesus, and the singular combination of man, and
the Divinity that were believed to exist in him, formed
the basis of these speculations. We shall see gnosti
cism come to light in a current of like ideas, and seek
in its turn to decompose the unity of the Christ ; but
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 2l9
the orthodox Church will be steady in repelling such
conceptions ; the existence of Christianity, founded
upon the reality of the personal action of Jesus, was
at this price.
John, without doubt, consoled himself for these
aberrations, the fruits of a mind strange to the Gali
lean tradition, by the fidelity and affection with
which his disciples surrounded him. In the first rank
was a young Asiatic, named Polycarp, who must have
been about thirty years of age during the extreme
old age of John, and who appears to have been con
verted to the faith in Christ in his infancy. The
extreme respect which he had for the Apostle made
him look upon him with the curious eye of youth, in
which everything enlarges and transforms itself. The
living image of this old man had fixed itself in his
mind, and throughout his life he spoke of it as of a
glimpse of the Divine world. It was at Smyrna that
he was chiefly active, and it is not impossible that -he
had been selected by John to preside over the already
ancient Church in that city, as Irenaeus has it.
Thanks to Polycarp, the memory of John remained
in Asia, and consequently at Lyons, and amongst the
Gauls, a living tradition. Everything that Polycarp
said of the Lord, of his doctrine, and of his miracles,
connected him as having received it from the eye
witnesses of the Life of Jesus. He was accustomed
to express himself thus: "This I have from the
Apostles." ..." I who have been taught by the
Apostles, and who have lived with many of those who
have seen the Christ." This way of speaking caused
it to be supposed that Polycarp had known other
Apostles besides John Philip, for example. It is,
however, more probable that there was some hyper
bole here. The expression "the Apostles," without
doubt means John, who might besides be accompanied
by many unknown Galilean disciples. We may also
understand thereby, if we choose, Presbyteros Joannes
220 THE GOSPELS AND
and Aristion, who, according to certain texts, would
have been the immediate disciples of the Lord. As to
Caius, Diotrephes, Demetrius, and the pious Cyria
whom the Epistles of the Presbyteros present as
making part of the Ephesian circle, it would be to
risk by dwelling too strongly on these names, dis
cussing beings who, as the Talmud says, " have never
been created," and who owe their existence only to
the artifices of forgers, or even, like Cyria, to mis-
und erstandings.
Nothing, in short, is more doubtful than everything
which relates to this homonym of the Apostle, this
Presbyteros Joannes, who only appears near to John
in his later years, and who, according to some tradi
tions, succeeded him in the presidency of the Church
of Ephesus. His existence, however, seems probable.
The title of Presbyteros may be the appellation by
which he was distinguished from Apostolos. After
the death of the Apostle, he may have long continued
to describe himself as Presbyteros, omitting his name.
Aristion, whom very ancient information places by
the side of the Presbyteros as a traditionist of the
highest authority, and who appears to have been
claimed by the Church of Smyrna, is also an enigma.
All that can be said is that there was at Ephesus
a group of men who, towards the end of the first
century, gave themselves out as the last eye-witnesses
of the Life of Jesus. Papias knew them, or at least
came very near to them, and collected their traditions.
We shall see later the publication of a Gospel, of
an altogether special character, produced by this little
circle, which appears to have obtained the entire con
fidence of the old Apostle, and which perhaps believed
itself authorised to speak in his name. At the period
at which we are, and before the death of John, some
of his disciples, who appear to have surrounded him,
and, as it were, to have monopolised the old age of the
last survivor of the Apostles, did they not seek to
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 221
make use of the rich treasure which he had at their
disposal ? We may suppose so ; we ourselves were
formerly inclined that way. We think now that it is
more probable that some part of the Gospel which
bears the name of John may have been written by
himself, or by one of his disciples during his lifetime.
But we persist in believing that John had a manner
of his own of telling the life of Jesus, a manner very
different from the narratives of Batanea, superior in
some respects, and in particular the parts of the life
of Jesus which were passed in Jerusalem afforded
him more room for development. We believe that
the Apostle John, whose character appears to have
been sufficiently personal, and who, during the life
time of Jesus, aspired with his brother to the first
place in the Kingdom of God, gave himself with much
simplicity that place in his narrative. If he had read
the Gospels of Mark or of Luke, which is quite pos
sible, he must have found that there was not sufficient
mention of him, that the importance attributed to
him was not so great as he had had. He claimed as
is known to have been, the disciple whom Jesus
especially loved ; he wished that it should be believed
that he had played the first part in the Gospel drama.
With the vanity of an old man he assumed all the
importance, and his long stories have frequently no
other object than that of showing that he had been the
favourite disciple of Jesus, that at solemn moments
he had rested upon his heart, that Jesus had confided
to him his mother, that in a host of circumstances
where the first place had been given to Peter, it really
belonged to him John. His great age gave rise to
all kinds of reflections, his longevity passed for a sign
from Heaven. As, furthermore, his surroundings were
not distinguished by absolute good faith, and as even
a little charlatanism may have been mixed up with
them, we can imagine what strange productions might
spring up in this nest of pious intrigues around an
222 THE GOSPELS AND
old man whose head might be weak, and who found
himself powerless in the hands of those who took
care of him.
John continued a strict Jew to the end, observing
the Law in all its rigour ; it is doubtful whether the
transcendental theories which began to be disseminated
as to the identity of Jesus with the Logos can ever
have been comprehended by him ; but, as happens in
schools of thought in which the master attains a great
age, his school went on without him and outside of
him, even whilst pretending to base itself upon him.
John appeared fated to be made use of by the authors
of fictitious pieces. We have seen how much there
was that was suspicious in the origin of the Apocalypse;
objections almost equally grave may be made to
theories which maintain the authenticity of this
singular book, and which declare it apocryphal. What
shall be said of that other eccentricity, that a whole
branch of the ecclesiastical tradition, the school of
Alexandria, has determined not merely that the
Apocalypse shall not be John s, but that it belongs
to his opponent Cerinthus. We shall find the
same equivocations surrounding the second class of
Johannian writings which will soon be produced, and
one thing only remaining clear that John cannot
have been the author of the two series of works which
bear his name. One of the two series, at all events,
may possibly be his ; but both are certainly not.
There was great emotion on the day which wit
nessed the death of the Apostle in whom for many
years had been summed up the whole Christian
tradition, and by whom it was believed that there was
still connection with Jesus, and with the beginning
of the new word. All the pillars of the Church had
disappeared. He whom Jesus, according to the common
belief, had promised not to allow to taste of death
until he came again, had in turn gone down into the
grave. It was a cruel deception, and in order to
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 223
justify the prophecy of Jesus, it was necessary to have
recourse to subtleties. It was not true, said the
friends of John, that Jesus had announced that his
beloved Apostle should remain alive until his reappear
ance. He had simply said to Peter, " If I will that he
tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? " a vague
formula which left the field open to all sorts of
explanations, and allowed it to be believed that John,
like Enoch, Elias, Esdras, were held in reserve until
the coming of the Christ. It was now in any case a
solemn moment. No one now could say, " I have seen
him." Jesus and the first years of the Church of
Jerusalem were lost in an obscure past. The import
ance then passed to those who had known the
Apostles, to Mark and to Luke, disciples of Peter and
Paul, to the daughters of Philip, who continued his
marvellous gifts. Polycarp all his life quoted the
connection which he had had with John. Aristion
and Presbyteros Johannes lived upon the same
memories. To have seen Peter, Andrew, Thomas,
Philip became the leading qualification in the eyes of
those who wished to know the truth as to the appear
ances of the Christ. Books, as we have said twenty
times, counted for very little; oral tradition was
everything. The transmission of the doctrine, and
the transmission of apostolic powers, were regarded as
part of a kind of delegation, of ordination, of con
secration, the primary source of which was the
apostolic college. Soon every Church wishes to show
the succession of the men who made the chain going-
back in a right line to the Apostles. Ecclesiastical
precedence was regarded as a sort of inoculation with
spiritual powers, suffering no interruption. The ideas
of the social hierarchy thus made rapid progress ; the
episcopate consolidated itself from day to day.
The tomb of John was shown at Ephesus ninety
years later; it is probable that upon this venerable
monument was raised the basilica which afterwards
224 THE GOSPELS ANL
became celebrated, and the site of which appears to
have been in the neighbourhood of the present citadel
of Aia Solouk. By the side of the tomb of the
Apostle was to be seen in the third century a second
tomb, which was also attributed to a person named
John, whence resulted great confusion. We shall
have to speak of it again.
CHAPTER XIX.
LUKE, THE FIRST HISTORIAN OF CHRISTIANITY.
WITH John disappeared the last man of the strange
generation which had believed itself to have seen
God upon the earth, and had hoped not to die. It
was about the same time that that charming book
appeared which has preserved to us across the mists
of legends the image of the age of gold. Luke, or
whoever the author of the third Gospel may have
been, undertook that task, which was congenial to his
refined soul, to his pure and gentle talents. The pre
faces which stand at the head of the third Gospel
and at the head of the Acts appear at the first glance
to indicate that Luke conceived his work as consist
ing of two books, one of which contained the Life of
Jesus, the other the history of the Apostles as he had
known them. There are, however, strong reasons for
believing that the compilation of the two works was
separated by some interval. The preface to the
Gospel does not necessarily imply the intention of
composing the Acts. It may be that Luke added this
second book to his work only at the end of several
years, and at the request of persons with whom the
first book had had so much success.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 225
This hypothesis is supported by the part which the
author has taken in the first lines of the Acts rela
tive to the ascension of Jesus. In the other Gospels
the period of the apparitions of Jesus fades away little
by little, without any definite end. The imagination
comes to desire a final catastrophe ; a definite way
of escaping from a state of things which could not
continue indefinitely. This myth, the completion of
the legend of Jesus, was slowly and painfully evolved.
The author of the apocalypse in 69 certainly be
lieved in the Ascension. Jesus, according to him,
is carried up into heaven and placed by the throne of
God. In the same book the two prophets copied from
Jesus, killed like him, rise after three and a half
days ; after their resurrection, they ascend to heaven
in a cloud in the sight of their enemies. Luke, in his
Gospel, leaves the matter in suspense, but at the
beginning of the Acts he relates, with all desirable
accompaniments, the crowning event of the life of
Jesus. He knows even how long the life of Jesus
lasted beyond the tomb. It was forty days, a remark
able coincidence with the apocalypse of Esdras.
Luke at Rome may have been one of the earliest
readers of this document, which must have made a
profound impression upon him. The spirit of the
Acts is the same as that of the third Gospel : gentle
ness, tolerance, conciliation, sympathy with the
humble, aversion from the proud. The author is
certainly he who wrote, " Peace to men of good will."
We have explained elsewhere the singular distortions
which these excellent intentions have made him give
to historic accuracy, and how his book is the first
document of the mind of the Roman Church, indiffer
ent to facts and dominated in all things by the official
tendencies. Luke is the founder of that eternal
fiction which is called ecclesiastical history, with its
insipidity, its habit of smoothing off all angles, its
foolishly sanctified turns. The a priori of a Church
p
226 THE GOSPELS AND
always wise, always moderate, is the basis of his
narrative. The principal point for him is to show
that the disciples of Paul are the disciples not of an
intruder but of an apostle like the others who has
been in perfect communion with the others. The rest
is of small consequence to him. Everything passes as
in an idyll. Peter was at heart of Paul s opinion ;
Paul was of the opinion of Peter. An inspired assembly
has seen all the members of the apostolic college
united in the same thought. The first Pagan bap
tism was performed by Peter ; Paul, on the other hand,
submitted to the legal prescriptions, and observed them
publicly at Jerusalem. All frank expression of a
decided opinion is repugnant to this prudent narrator.
The Jews are treated as false witnesses because they
quote an authentic statement of Jesus, and attribute
to the Founder of Christianity an intention of bring
ing about changes in Mosaism. According to the
occasion, Christianity is nothing else than Judaism, or
else it is quite a different thing. When the Jew bows
before Jesus, his privilege is loudly recognised. Luke
then has the most unctuous words for these elders of
the family who must be reconciled with the younger
brothers. But that does not prevent him from insist
ing complacently on the Pagans who have been con
verted, or from opposing them to the hardened Jew,
uncircumcised of heart. He may see that at bottom
his sympathies are with the former. He greatly
prefers the Pagans who are Christians in spirit, the
centurions who love the Jews, the plebeians who
avow their humility. Return to God, faith in Jesus,
these are matters which equalise all differences,
extinguish all rivalries. It is the doctrine of Paul set
free from those rudenesses which fill the life of the
Apostle with bitterness and disgust.
From the point of view of historical value, two
parts, absolutely distinct, ought to be made in the Acts,
according to which Luke relates the facts of the life
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 227
of Paul, of which he had personal knowledge, or as he
presents to us the accepted theory of his times as to
the first years of the Church at Jerusalem. The first
years were like a distant mirage, full of illusions.
Luke was as ill-placed as possible to understand that
world which has disappeared. All that had happened
during the years which followed the death of Jesus,
was regarded as symbolical and mysterious. Across
that deceiving vapour, everything became sacramental.
Thus were formed, besides the myth of the Ascension
of Jesus, the narrative of the descent of the Holy
Ghost, which was connected with the day of the
Feast of Pentecost, the exaggerated ideas of the com
munity of goods in the Primitive Church, the terrible
legend of Ananias and Sapphira, the fancies which
were indulged in as to the altogether hierarchical
character of the College of the Twelve, the contradic
tions as to the gift of tongues, the effect of which was
to transform into a public miracle a spiritual pheno
menon of the interior of the Churches. All that re
lates to the institution of the Seven, the conversion of
Cornelius, the Council of Jerusalem, and the decrees
which are supposed to have been issued from thence by
a common consent, arise out of the same tendency. It
is now very difficult to discover in these curious pages
the truth of the legend or even of the myth. As the
desire of finding a Gospel basis for all the dogmas and
the institutions which were hatched out every day
had encumbered the life of Jesus with fabulous
anecdotes, so the desire of finding for these same
institutions, for these same dogmas, an apostolic .basis,
charged the history of the first years of the Church
at Jerusalem, with a host of narratives conceived a
priori. To write history ad narrandum, non ad
probandum, is a feat of disinterested curiosity of
which there is no example in the creative periods
of the faith.
We have had too many occasions to show in detail
228 THE GOSPELS AND
the principles which govern the narrative of Luke, to
be compelled to revert to them here. The reunion of
the two parties into which the Church of Jesus was
divided, is its principal object. Rome was the point
where that supreme work was accomplished. Clemens
Romanus had already preluded it. He had probably
never seen either Peter or Paul. His great practical
sense showed him that the safety of the Christian
Church required the reconcilation of its two founders.
Did he inspire St Luke, who appears to have been in
communication with him, or did these two pious souls
fall spontaneously into agreement as to the direction
which it was desirable to give to Christian opinion ?
We do not know, for want of documents. What we do
know is that it was a Roman work. Rome possessed
two Churches, one coming from Peter, and one from
Paul. To those numerous converts who came to
Jesus, some by way of the school of Peter, and others
by way of the school of Paul, and who were tempted
to cry out, " What ! are there then two Christs ? " it
was necessary to be able to say, " No. Peter and Paul
are in perfect agreement. The Christianity of the
one is the Christianity of the other." Perhaps a
slight colouring was on this account imported into the
Gospel legend of the miraculous Draught of Fishes.
According to the account of Luke, the nets of Peter
were not able to contain the multitude of fishes
which were anxious to be captured ; Peter is obliged
to make signs to his collaborators to come to his
aid ; a second ship (Paul and his friends) is filled in
the sajne way as the first, and the haul of the king
dom of God is super-abundant.
Something analogous to this may be found in what
happened about the time of the Revolution, in. the
party which undertook to restore the worship of
the French Revolution. Amongst the heroes of the
Revolution, the struggles had been ardent and bitter ;
there was hatred even to the death. But twenty-five
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 229
years afterwards nothing remained of all that but
a great neutral result. It was forgotten that the
Girondins, Dantcu, Robespierre, had cut off each
other s heads. Save for some few and rare excep
tions, there were no longer any partisans of the Giron
dins, of Danton, or of Robespierre ; all were partisans
of what was considered their common work that is
to say, the Revolution. In the same Pantheon were
placed as brethren men who had proscribed each
other. In great historical movements there is the
moment of exaltation when men associated in. view
of a common work separate from each other or kill
each other for a shade of difference ; then comes the
moment of reconciliation, when it is sought to prove
that these apparent enemies understood each other
and laboured for the same end. At the end of a
certain time, out of all these disagreements comes
forth a single doctrine, and a perfect agreement
reigns between the disciples of the men who anathe
matised each other.
Another essentially Roman feature of Luke, is one
which brings him into closer relation with Clement,
is his respect for the Imperial authority, and the pre
cautions which he takes not to wound it. We do not
find amongst these two writers the bitter hatred of
Rome which characterises the authors of the apoca
lypse and the Sibylline poems. The author of the
Acts avoids everything which could present Rome as
the enemy of Christianity. On the contrary, he
endeavours to show that on many occasions they
have defended Paul and the Christians against the
Jews. There is never an insulting word for the
civil magistrates. If he stops short in his narrative
at the arrival of Paul at Rome, it is perhaps because
he does not wish to be compelled to relate the mon
strosities of Nero. Luke does not admit that the
Christians may ever have been legally compromised.
If Paul had not appealed to the Emperor, he might
230 THE GOSPELS AND
have been acquitted. A judicial afterthought in per
fect agreement with the era of Trajan preoccupies
him : he wishes to create precedents, to show that
there is no method of prosecuting those who had
been so often acquitted. Bad processes do not repel
him. Never have patience and optimism been pushed
farther. The taste for persecution, the joy of suffer
ings endured for the name of Jesus, fill the soul of
Luke, and make his book the manual par excellence
of the Christian missionary.
The perfect unity of the book scarcely allows us to
decide whether Luke in composing it had under his
eyes previously-written documents, or if he was the
first to write the history of the Apostles from oral
tradition. There were many Acts of the Apostles, just
as there were many Gospels ; but whilst several Gospels
have been retained in the Canon, only a single book of
Acts has been preserved. The " Preaching of Peter,"
the object of which was to present Jerusalem as the
source of all Christianity, and Peter as the centre of
the Hierosolymitan Christianity, is perhaps as ancient
at bottom as the Acts; but Luke certainly did not
know it. It is gratuitous also to suppose that Luke
revised and completed, in the sense of the reconcilia
tion of the Judeo-Christian with Paul, a more ancient
document composed to the greater glory of the
Church of Jerusalem and the Twelve. The design of
putting Paul on a level with the Twelve, and, above
all, to connect Peter and Paul, is manifest in our
author ; but it appears that he followed in his narra
tive only the framework of a long-established oral
tradition. The chiefs of the Church of Rome appear
to have a consecrated manner of relating the apostolic
history. Luke conformed to it, adding a sufficiently
detailed memoir of Paul, and towards the end some
personal recollections. Like all the historians of
antiquity, he did not deny himself the use of a little
innocent rhetoric. At Rome his Greek education had
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 231
been completed, and the sentiment of oratorical com
position in the Greek manner awoke in him.
The book of the Acts, like the third Gospel written
for the Christian society of Rome, remained for a long
time confined to it. So long as the Church developed
herself by direct tradition and by internal necessities,
only a secondary importance was attached to it, but
when the decisive argument in the discussions relative
to the ecclesiastical organisations was to remount to
the primitive Church as to an ideal, the book of the
Acts became of the highest authority. It told of the
Ascension, the Pentecost, the Ccenaculum, the miracles
of the apostolic Word, the Council of Jerusalem. The
foregone conclusions of Luke imposed themselves upon
history ; and even to the penetrating observers of the
modern criticism, the thirty years which were most
fertile in ecclesiastical annals, were known only by
him. The material truth suffered from it, for that
material truth Luke scarcely knew, while he cared
still less about it ; but almost as much as the Gospels,
the Acts fashioned the future. The manner in which
things are told is of more consequence in great secular
developments than the manner in which they happened.
Those who constructed the legend of Jesus have a
part in the work of Christianity almost equal to his ;
that which made the legend of the primitive Church
has weighed with an enormous weight in the creation
of that spiritual society where so many centuries have
found the repose of their souls. Multitudinis creden-
tium erat cor unum et anima una. When one has
written that, one has thrust into the heart of humanity
the goad which never allows it to rest until what may
have been discovered, and what has been seen in
slumber, and what has been seen in dreams, and
touched that of which we have dreamed.
232 THE GOSPELS AND
CHAPTER XX.
SYRIAN SECT S E L K A S A 1.
WHILST the Western Churches, yielding more or less
to the influence of the Roman spirit, moved rapidly
towards an orthodox Catholicism, and aspired to give
to itself a central government excluding the varieties
of the sects, the Churches of the Ebionim in Syria
were crumbling away more and more, and wasted
themselves in all sorts of aberrations. The sect is not
the Church ; too often, on the contrary, the sect eats
away the Church and dissolves it. A veritable
Proteus, Judeo-Christianity engaged itself by turns in
the most opposite directions. Notwithstanding the
privilege enjoyed by the Syrian Christians of possess
ing the members of the family of Jesus, and of attach
ing to itself a tradition much closer than those of the
Churches of Asia, of Greece, and of Rome, it is not to
be doubted that, left to themselves, these little associa
tions would have melted away like a dream at the
end of two or three hundred years. On the one hand,
the exclusive use of Syriac deprived them of all fertile
contact with the works of Greek genius ; on the other,
a host of Oriental influences, full of danger, acted upon
them, and threatened them with a prompt corruption.
Their imperfect reasoning powers delivered them over
to the seductions of the theosophic follies of Baby
lonian, Persian, or Egyptian origin ; which, in about
forty years, caused the nascent Christianity that
grave malady of Gnosticism, which can only be com
pared to a terrible croup, from which the child barely
escapes by a miracle.
The atmosphere in which these Ebionite Churches
of Syria, and beyond the Jordan, lived, was exceed
ingly disturbed. Jewish sects abounded in these
districts, and followed an altogether different course
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 233
from that of the orthodox doctors. After the
destruction of Jerusalem, Judaism, deprived of the
prophetic spur, had only two poles of religious
activity the Casuistic, represented by the Talmud,
and the mystical dreams of the new-born Cabbala.
Lydda and Jabne-h were the centres of the religious
elaboration of the Talmud; the country beyond
Jordan served as a cradle to the Cabbala. The
Essenians were not dead ; under the names of Essenes,
Ossenes, or Osseens, they were scarcely to be distin
guished from Nazarenes or Ebionites, and continued
their special asceticisms and fastings with so much
the more ardour since the destruction of the Temple
had suppressed the ritualism of the Thora. The
Galileans of Judah, the Gaulonite, existed, it appears,
as a Church apart. It is scarcely known what the
Masbotheans were, still less what were the Genisti,
the Meristi, and some other obscure heretics.
The Samaritans were divided on their side into a
crowd of sects, more or less connected with Simon
of Gitton. Cleobius, Menander, the Gorotheans, the
Sebueans, are already Gnostics : the Cabbalistic
mysticism ran high amongst them. The absence of
all authority still permitted the gravest confusions.
The Samaritan sects which swarmed by the side of
the Church sometimes entered within its limits or
sought to force their way in. We may connect with
these times the book of the Grand Exposition attri
buted to Simon of Gitton. Menander and Capharateus
had succeeded to all the ambitions of Simon. He,
like his master, imagined that he possessed the supreme
virtue hidden from the rest of men. Between God
and the creation he placed an innumerable world of
angels, over whom magic had all power. Of that
magic he pretended to know the profoundest secrets.
It appears that he baptised in his own name. This
baptism conferred the right to the resurrection and
to immortality. It was at Antioch that Menander
234 tHE GOSPELS AND
reckoned the greatest number of followers. His
disciples sought, as it would seem, to usurp the name
of Christians, but the Christians vigorously repulsed
them and gave them the name of Menandrians. It
was the same with certain Simonian sectaries named
Eutychites, worshippers of Eons, against whom were
brought the gravest accusations.
Another Samaritan, Dositheus or Dosthai, played
the part of a sort of Christ, of Son of God, and sought
to pass himself off as the great prophet equal to
Moses of whom the promise might be read in
Deuteronomy (xviii. 15), and in these feverish times
he was constantly expected. Essenism, with its
tendency to multiply angels, was at the root of all
these aberrations ; the Messiah himself was no more
than an angel, and Jesus, in the Churches placed under
that influence, risked the loss of his beautiful title of
Son of God, to become only a great angel an Eon of
the first rank.
The intimate connection which existed between
Christians and the mass of Israel, the want of direc
tion which characterised the trans-Jordanic Churches,
caused each of these sects to have its counterpart in
the Church of Jesus. We do not well understand
what Hegesippus endeavours to say when he traces
for the Church of Jerusalem a period of absolute
virginity, finishing about the time at which we now
are, and when he attributes all the evil of the time
which followed to a certain Trebuthis, who, out of
spite at not having been named bishop, infected the
Church with errors borrowed from seven Jewish sects.
What is true is that in the lost provinces of the East
strange alliances were produced. Sometimes even
the mania for incoherent mixtures did not stop at
the limits of Judaism ; the religions of Upper Asia
furnished more than one element to the cauldron in
which the most discordant elements fermented to
gether. Baptism is a rite originally from the region
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 235
of the Lower Euphrates ; but baptism was the most
common feature amongst the Jewish sects which
sought to free themselves from the Temple and the
priests at Jerusalem. John the Baptist still had
disciples. The Essenians, the Ebionites, were almost
al] given to ablutions. After the destruction of the
Temple, baptism gained greater strength. The sectaries
plunged into water every day and on any excuse.
We heard about the year 80 accounts which appeared
to come from this sect. Under Trajan, the fashion of
baptism redoubled. This growing favour was due in
part to the influence of a certain Elkasai, who we
may suppose to have been in many ways the imitator
of John the Baptist and of Jesus.
This Elkasai appears to have been an Essene of the
country beyond Jordan. He had, perhaps, resided in
Babylonia, whence he pretended to have brought the
book of his revelation. He raised his prophetic stand
ard in the third year of the reign of Trajan, preaching
repentance, and a new baptism more efficacious than
all these which had preceded it, capable, in a word, of
washing away the most enormous sins. He presented,
as a proof of his divine mission, a bizarre apocalypse,
probably written in Syriac, which he sought to sur
round with a charlatanesque mystery, by representing
it as having come down from heaven at Sera, the
capital of the fabulous country of the Serans, beyond
Parthia. A gigantic angel, thirty-two leagues in
height, representing the Son of God, there played the
part of revealer; by his side, a female angel of the
same height, the Holy Spirit, appeared like a statue
in the clouds between two mountains. Elkasai, now
the depositary of the book, transmits it to a certain
Sobiaii. Some fragments of this strange document are
known to us. Nothing there rises above the level of
a vulgar mystifier, who wishes to make his fortune
with pretended formulas of expiation and ridiculous
mummeries. Magic formulas composed of Syriac
236 THE GOSPELS AND
phrases read backwards, puerile predictions as to
lucky and unlucky days, mad medicine of exorcisms
and sortileges, prescriptions against devils and dogs,
astrological predictions such is the Gospel of Elkasai.
Like all the makers of apocalypses, he announced
catastrophes for the Roman Empire, the date of which
he fixed for the sixth year after Trajan.
Was Elkasai really Christian? It has sometimes
been doubted. He spoke often about the Messiah, but
he equivocated concerning Jesus. It may be imagined
that, walking in the footsteps of Simon of Gitton,
Elkasai knew and copied Christianity. Like Mahomet,
at a later period, he adopted Jesus as a divine person
age. The Ebionites were the only Christians with
whom he had relations ; for his Christology is dis
tinctly that of Nbion. By its example, he maintained
the Law, circumcision, the Sabbath, rejected the ancient
prophets, hated Paul, abstained from flesh, and turned
towards Jerusalem in prayer. His disciples appear
to have approached Buddhism ; they admitted many
Christs, passing one into the others by a sort of trans
migration, or rather a single Christ incarnating him
self and appearing in the world at intervals. Jesus
was one of these apparitions, Adam having been the
first. These dreams make one think of the avatars of
Vishnu and the successive lives of Krishna.
We feel in all this the crude syncretism of a sectary
very like Mahomet, who coolly jumbles together and
confounds the ideas which he gleans from right and
left according to his caprice or interest. The most
recognisable influence is that of Persian naturalism
and the Babylonian Cabbala. The Elkasaites adored
water as the source of life, and detested fire. Their
baptism administered, " in the name of the Most High
God, and in the name of the Son, the great King,"
effaced all sins and cured all sickness, when to it was
ioined the invocation of seven mysterious witnesses,
the heaven, water, the holy spirits, the angels of
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 237
prayer, oil, salt, earth. From the Essenes Elkasai
borrowed fasting, the horror of bloody sacrifices. The
privilege of announcing the future and of healing the
sick by magical operations, was also a pretension of
the Essenes. But the morals of Elkasai resembled
those of these good Cenobites as little as might be.
He reproved virginity, and, to avoid persecution, he
allowed the simulation of idolatry, even to denying
with the mouth the faith professed.
These doctrines were more or less adopted by all
the Ebionite sects. The living impress of them may
be found in the pseudo-Clementine narratives, the
work of the Ebionites at Rome, and vague reflections
of them in the epistle falsely attributed to John.
The book of Elkasai was, however, not known by the
Greek and Latin Churches until the third century,
and had amongst them no success. It was, on the
other hand, adopted with enthusiasm by the Osseans,
the Nazarenes, and the Ebionites of the East. All
the region beyond Jordan, Perea, Moab, Iturea, the
country of the Nabatheans, the banks of the Dead
Sea towards Arnon, were filled with these sectaries.
Later they were called Samseans, an expression of
obscure meaning. In the fourth century the fanaticism
of the sect was such that people caused themselves to
be killed for the family of Elkasai. His family, in
fact, still existed and carried on its vulgar charlatanry.
Two women, Marthous and Marthana, who claimed
descent from him, were almost worshipped ; the dust
of their feet, their spittle, were treated as relics. In
Arabia, the Elkasaites, like the Ebionites and the
Judeo-Christians in general, lived close to Islam and
were confounded with it. The theory of Mahomet as
to Jesus is scarcely separable from that of Elkasai.
The idea of the Kibla, or direction for prayer, perhaps
comes from the trans-Jordanic sectaries.
It is impossible to insist too strongly on the point
that before the great schism of the Greek and Latin
238 THE GOSPELS AND
Churches, equally orthodox and Catholic, there had
been another schism an Oriental, a Syrian schism, if
we may so explain it which put out of the pale of
Christianity, or, more exactly, left upon its confines
a whole world of Judeo-Christian or Ebionite sects,
in no way Catholic (Essenians, Osseans, Samseans,
Jesseans, Elkasaites), in whose midst Mahomet learned
Christianity, and of which Islam was the result. A
proof, in some sort still a living proof, of this great
fact, is the name of Nazarenes, which Mussulmans have
always given to Christians. Another proof that the
Christianity of Mahomet was Ebionism of Nazarism
is that obstinate docetism which has caused it to be
believed by the Mussulmans of all times that Jesus
was not crucified in person, that a ghost alone suf
fered in his place. We might fancy that we heard
Cerinthus, or some of the Gnostics so energetically
opposed by Irenaeus.
The Syriac name of these various sects of Baptists
was Sabiin, the exact equivalent of " baptisers." This
is the origin of the name of Sabiens which serves
even now to designate the Mendaites, the Nazarenes,
or Christians of St John, who drag out their poor
existence in the marshy district of Wasith and of
Howeysa, not far from the confluence of the Tigris
and of the Euphrates. In the seventh century
Mahomet treated them with a special consideration.
In the tenth the Arab polygraphs called them El-
mogtasileh, " those who bathed." The first Europeans
who knew them took them for disciples of John the
Baptist, who had quitted the banks of the Jordan
before receiving the preaching of Jesus. It is hardly
possible to doubt the identity of these sectaries with
the Elkasaites, when we find them calling their
founder El hasih, and, above all, when we study their
doctrines, which are a sort of Judeo-Babyloniaii
Gnosticism analogous in many ways to that of
Elkasai. The use of ablutions, the taste for astrology,
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 239
the habit of ascribing books to Adam as the first of
revelators, the qualities attributed to angels, a sort of
naturalism and of belief in the magical virtue of the
elements, the horror of celibacy, are so many features
common to the Elkasaites and to the sectaries of
Bassora.
Like Elkasa i the Mendaites believed in water as the
principle of life ; fire as a principle of darkness and
destruction. Although they lived far from the Jordan,
that stream is always the baptismal stream. Their
antipathy for Jerusalem and Judaism, the dislike
which they manifested for Jesus and for Christianity,
did not prevent their organisation of bishops, priests,
and faithful from recalling in all respects the organisa
tion of Christianity, or their liturgy from being copied
from that of a Church, and bordering upon true
Sacraments. Their books do not appear to be very
ancient, but they seem to have replaced older ones.
Of this number was perhaps the Apocalypse or
Penitence of Adam,, a singular book about the
celestial liturgies for every hour of the day and night,
and upon the sacramental acts which belong to each.
Does Mendaism come from a single source Essenism
and Jewish baptism ? Certainly not. In many respects
a branch of the Babylonian religion may be seen in it,
that religion may have entered into close alliance with
a Judeo-Christian sect, itself already impressed with
Babylonish ideas. The unbridled syncretism which
has always been the rule with Oriental sects, renders
an exact analysis of such monstrosities impossible.
The ulterior relations of the Sabiens with Manicheism
remain very obscure. All that can be said is that
Elkasaism lasts even in our own days, and represents
alone in the marshes of Bassora the Judeo-Christian
sects which formerly flourished beyond Jordan.
The family of Jesus which still survived in Syria
was undoubtedly opposed to these unhealthy dreams.
About the time we are considering, the last nephews
240 THE GOSPELS AND
of the Galilean founder died out, surrounded with the
most profound respect by the trans-Jordanic com
munities, but almost forgotten by the other Churches.
After their appearance before Domitian, the sons of
Jude, returned to Batanea, were considered martyrs.
They were placed at the head of the Churches, and
they enjoyed a preponderating authority until their
death; under Trajan. The sons of Cleophas during
this time appear to have continued to bear the title
of presidents of the Church of Jerusalem. To Simeon,
son of Cleophas, had succeeded his nephew Judah, son
of James, to whom appears to have succeeded another
Simeon, the great-grandson of Cleophas.
An important political event occurred in the
year 105, in Syria, which had grave consequences for
the future of Christianity. The Nabathean king
dom, which, until then, had remained independent,
bordered Palestine on the east and included the
cities of Petra, of Bostra, and in fact, if not in law,
the city of Damascus, was destroyed by Cornelius
Palma, and became the Roman province of Arabia.
About the same time the little royalties feudatory to
the Empire which until then were maintained in
Syria, the Herods, the Soemi of Edessa, the little
sovereign of Chalcis, of Arbila, the Solencides of the
Comagena, had disappeared. The Roman domination
then assumed in the East a regularity which it had
never had before. Beyond its frontiers there was
only the inaccessible desert. The trans-Jordanic
world which until then entered into the Empire only
by its most westerly parts, was there swallowed up
wholly. Palmyra, which so far had given to Rome
only auxiliaries, entered altogether into the Roman
domination. The entire field of Christian work is
henceforward submitted to Rome, and is about to
enjoy the absolute repose which the end of the pre
occupations of local patriotism brings about. All the
East adopted Roman manners ; the cities until then
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 24 1
Oriental were rebuilt according to the rules of con
temporary art. The prophecies of the Jewish apo
calypses were not fulfilled. The Empire was at the
height of its power ; one single government extended
from York to Assouan, from Gibraltar to the Car
pathians and to the Syrian desert. The follies of
Caligula and of Nero, the wickedness of Tiberius
and Domitian, were forgotten. In that immense area
there was only one natural protestation that of the
Jews ; all bent without murmuring before the great
est force which had ever been seen in the world until
then.
CHAPTER XXI
TRAJAN AS A PERSECUTOR LETTER OF PLINY.
IN a multitude of ways this force was benevolent
There were many countries, and, in consequence, many
wars. With the reforms which might be hoped for
from the excellent statesmen who were at the head of
affairs, the aims of humanity seemed to be attained.
We have already shown how that species of golden
age of the Liberals, that government of the wisest
and most honest men was hard, worse, in a sense,
than that of Nero and Domitian. Cold, correct,
moderate statesmen, knowing only the law, applying
it even with indulgence, could not fail to be perse
cutors ; for the law was a persecutor ; it did not
permit what the Church of Jesus regarded as of the
very essence of its divine institution.
Everything proves, in fact, that Trajan was the first
systematic persecutor of Christianity. The proceed
ings against the Christians, without being very fre-
Q
242 THE GOSPELS AND
quent, took place many times under his reign. His
political principles, his zeal for the official religion, his
aversion for everything that resembled a secret society,
involved him in it. He was equally urged forward by
public opinion. Outbreaks against the Christians
were not rare. The government, whilst satisfying its
own suspicions, acquired by its severities against the
calumniated sect a varnish of popularity. The riots
and the persecutions which followed them, were alto
gether local in character. There was not under Trajan
what under Decius and Diocletian was called a general
persecution, but the condition of the Church was un
stable and unequal. It was dependent upon caprices,
and such caprices as came from the crowd were
usually more to be feared than those of the agents of
authority. Amongst the agents of authority them
selves, the most enlightened Tacitus, for example,
and Suetonius nourished the most deeply-rooted
prejudices against " the new superstition." Tacitus
regards it as the first duty of a good statesman to
stifle at the same time both Judaism and Christianity,
" melancholy offshoots of the same stalk."
That becomes manifest in a very sensible manner
when one of the most honest, the most upright, the
most educated, the most liberal men of the time found
himself brought by his duties into the presence of the
problem which was coming to the front, and was
beginning to embarrass the best minds. Pliny was
named in the year 111 Imperial Legate Extraordinary
in the provinces of Bithynia and Pontus, that is to
say, in all the north of Asia Minor. This country
had until then been governed by annual pro-consuls,
senators drawn by lot, who had administered it with
the greatest negligence. In some respects liberty had
gained thereby. Shut off from high political ques
tions, these administrators of a day occupied them
selves less than they might have done with the future
of the Empire. The public treasury had fallen into a
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 243
state of extreme dilapidation ; finances and the public
works of the province were in a pitiable state ; but
whilst they were occupied in amusing or enriching
themselves, these governors had left the country to
follow its own instincts at will. Disorder, as often
happens, had profited by liberty.
The official religion had to sustain it only the
support which it received from the Empire : aban
doned to itself by those indifferent prefects, it had
fallen altogether into disrepute. In certain districts,
the temples were in ruins. The professional and
religious associations, the heteries, which were so
strongly to the taste of Asia Minor, had been infinitely
developed; Christianity, profiting by the facilities
offered by the officials charged with its suppression,
gained in all districts. We have seen that Asia and
Galatia were the places where in all the world the
new religion had found the greatest favour. Thence
it had made surprising progress towards the Black
Sea. Manners were altogether changed. Meats
offered to idols, which were one of the sources of the
provision of the markets, could not be sold. The firm
knot of faithful might not be very numerous, but
around it sympathetic crowds were grouped, half
initiated, inconstant, capable of hiding their faith at
the appearance of danger, but at bottom not detaching
themselves from it. There were in those corporate
conversions fashionable enthusiasms, gusts of wind
which from time to time carried to the Church, and
took away from it, waves of unstable populations, but
the courage of the leaders was superior to all trials ;
their hatred of idolatry led them to brave everything
to maintain the point of honour of the faith which
they had embraced.
Pliny, a perfectly honest man and scrupulous
executor of the Imperial orders, was soon at work to
bring back to the provinces which had been entrusted
to him both order and law. Experience was wanting
244 THE GOSPELS
to him ; he was rather an amiable man of letters than
an able administrator ; in almost all matters of
business he was in the habit of consulting directly
with the Emperor. Trajan answered him, letter for
letter, and that precious correspondence has been
preserved to us. Upon the daily orders of the
Emperor everything was watched over, reformed ; he
required authorisations for the smallest matters. A
formal edict suppressed the heteries ; the most inoffen
sive corporations were dissolved. It was the custom in
Bithynia to celebrate certain family events and local
festivities by great assemblies in which a thousand
persons might be gathered. They were suppressed.
Liberty, which in most cases slips into the world in a
surreptitious fashion only, was reduced to almost
nothing.
It was inevitable that the Christian Churches
should be attacked by a meticulous policy which saw
everywhere the spectre of the heteries, and disquieted
itself over a society of five hundred workmen insti
tuted by authority to act as firemen. Pliny often
met on his path innocent sectaries, the danger of
whom he did not readily see. In the different stages
of his career as an advocate and magistrate he had
never been concerned in any proceedings against the
Christians. Denunciations now multiplied daily ;
arrests must follow. The Imperial Legate, following
the summary procedure of the justice of the time,
made some examples-, he decided to send to Rome
those who were Roman citizens ; he put two
deaconesses to the torture. All that he discovered
appeared to him childish. He wished to shut his
eyes, but the laws of the Empire were absolute ; the
informations passed all measure ; he found himself in
the way to put the entire country under arrest.
It was at Amisus, on the border of the Black Sea, in
the autumn of the year 112, that this difficulty be
came a dominant care for him. It is probable that
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 245
the last incidents which disturbed him had taken
place at Amastris, a city which in the second century
was the centre of Christianity in Pontus. Pliny,
according to custom, wrote of it to the Emperor :
I consider it my duty, sire, to refer to you all matters on
which I have doubts. Who can direct my hesitations or in
struct my ignorance better than you ? I have never taken part
in any proceedings against the Christians, hence I know not
whether I ought to punish or to hunt them out, nor how far I
ought to go. For example, I do not know if I ought to make
any distinction of age, or if in such a matter there ought to be
no difference between youth and ripe age ; if I must pardon up
on repentance, or if he who has become altogether a Christian
ought to profit by ceasing to be one ; if it is the name itself
apart from all crime that should be punished, or the crimes
which are inseparable from the name. In the meantime, the
course which I have adopted with regard to all those who have
been brought before me as Christians, has been to inquire first
if they are Christians ; those who have avowed themselves to
be such, I have interrogated a second time ; a third time threat
ening them with punishment ; those who have persisted, I have
sent to death ; one point in effect beyond all doubt for me being
that, whether the fact admitted be criminal or not, that in
flexible obstinacy and persistency deserved to be punished.
There are some other unhappy persons attacked with the same
madness, who, in view of their rank as Roman citizens, I have
directed to be sent to Rome. Then in the course of the process
the crime as generally happens, branching out widely, many
species of it are presented. An anonymous libel has been de
posited containing many names. Those who have denied that
they either were or had been Christians, I have thought it right
to release, when after me they have invoked the gods, when they
have offered incense and wine to your image, with which I have
supplemented the statues of the divinities, and when, moreover,
they have cursed Christus, all which things I am assured they
could not be forced to do if they were Christians. Others named
by the informer have said that they were Christians, and imme
diately have denied that they were, avowing that they had been,
but asserting that they had ceased to be, some for three years,
some for still longer, others for as many as twenty years. All
these also have paid honour to your image, and to the statues of
the gods, and have cursed Christ. Now these affirm that all their
offence or all their error was confined to meeting habitually on
fixed days before sunrise to sing together alternately (? anti-
phonically) a hymn to Christus as God, and to swear not to such
246 THE GOSPELS AND
and such certain crimes, but not to commit thefts, highway rob
bery, adultery, not fail to keep sworn faith, not to refuse to
restore a pledge ; that that done they used to retire, then to meet
together again to take a meal, but an ordinary and perfectly in
nocent meal ; that even that had ceased, since by your orders I
had forbidden the hateries. That made it necessary in my eyes
to proceed to discover the truth by the torture of two servants,
of those whom they call deaconesses. I found nothing but an
evil, unmeasured superstition. So, suspending the inquiry, I
resolved to consult you. The business has appeared to me to
require that I should do so, especially because of the number of
those who are in peril. A great number of persons in effect, of
every age, of every condition, of both sexes, are called to justice
or will be ; it is not only in the cities, but in the towns and in
the rural districts that the contagion of this superstition has
spread. I think that it may yet be stopped and remedied.
Already it is reported that the temples which were almost
abandoned, have begun to be frequented once more, that the
solemn festivals which had long been interrupted, have recom
menced, and that the flesh of victims (" meats offered to idols ")
is again exposed, though the buyers have been few. From which
it may readily be believed how great a number of men may be
reclaimed if a place of repentance be left open.
Trajan answered :
Thou hast followed the path thou should st have taken, my
clear Secundus, in examining the cases of those who have been
brought before thy tribunal as Christians. In such a matter it
is impossible to devise a fixed rule for all cases. They should
not be sought out. If they are denounced and are convicted,
they must be punished in such a way, however, that he who
denies that he is a Christian, and who proves his words by his
acts, that is to say, by addressing his supplications to our gods,
shall obtain pardon as a reward for his repentance, whatever
may have been the suspicions which weigh upon him for the
past. As for anonymous denunciations, we must not take ac
count of the species of accusation which is brought, for this
concerns a detestable example which is no longer of our time.
No more misunderstandings ! To be a Christian, is
to be in disagreement with the law, is to merit death
From Trajan s time Christianity is a crime against
the State. Some tolerant Emperors of the third
century will alone consent to shut their eyes and
allow men to be Christians if they chose. A good
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 247
administration, according to the most benevolent ideas
of the Emperors, ought not to try to find too many
criminals ; it does not encourage informers, but it
encourages apostacy by pardoning renegades. To
teach, to advise, to reward the most immoral acts,
that which most lowers a man in his own eyes,
appears wholly natural. Here is the error into which
one of the best governments that ever existed has
allowed itself to be drawn, because it has touched
matters of conscience, and has preserved the old
principle of the State religion, a principle which was
natural enough in the small cities of antiquity, which
were only an extension of the family, but dangerous
in a great Empire composed of parts having neither
the same history nor the same moral needs.
It is equally evident from these invaluable docu
ments that Christians were not persecuted as Jews, as
has been the case under Domitian. They are perse
cuted as Christians. There is no longer any confusion
in the judicial world, though in the world outside it
still existed. Judaism was not a crime : it had even
outside its days of revolt, its guarantees, and privi
leges. Strange thing ! Judaism, which revolted thrice
against the Empire with a nameless fury, was never
officially persecuted ; the evil treatment which the
Jews endured are, like those of the Rayahs in
Mahometan countries, the consequence of a subor
dinate position, not a legal punishment ; very rarely,
in the second and third century, because he will not
sacrifice to idols or to the image of the Emperor.
More than once even we find the Jews protected by
the administration against the Christians. On the
contrary, Christianity, which was never in revolt, was
in reality outside the law. Judaism had, if it may
be so expressed, its Concordat with the Empire ;
Christianity had none. The Roman policy felt that
Christianity was the white ant which was eating
away the heart of antique society. Judaism did not
248 THE GOSPELS AND
aspire to penetrate the Empire ; it dreamed of its
supernatural overthrow ; in its hours of insanity it
took arms, killed everyone, struck blindly, then, like
a raving madman, allowed itself to be chained after
its paroxysm, whilst Christianity continued its work
slowly, gently. Humble and modest in appearance, it
had a boundless ambition ; between it and the Empire
the struggle was to the death.
Trajan s answer to Pliny was not a law ; but it
supposed laws and fixed the interpretation of them.
The temperaments indicated by the wise Emperor
should have been of small consequence. It was too
easy to find pretexts, for the ill-will with which
Christians were regarded to find itself hampered. A
signed denunciation relating to an ostensible act was
all that was necessary. Now the attitude of a Chris
tian in passing before temples, his questions in the
markets as to the origin of the meats he found there ;
his absence from public festivals, pointed him out
at once. Thus local persecutions never ceased. It
was less the Emperors than the Pro-Consuls who
persecuted. All depended upon the good or the ill-
will of the governors, and the good-will was rare.
The time had gone by when the Roman aristocracy
would receive these exotic novelties with a sort
of benevolent curiosity. It had now but a cold
disdain for the follies it declined out of pure modera
tion and pity for human weaknesses to suppress at
a moment s notice. The people, on the other hand,
showed themselves fanatical enough. He who never
sacrificed, or who, in passing before a sacred edifice,
did not waft it a kiss of adoration, went in danger of
his life.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 249
CHAPTER XXII.
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH.
ANTIOCH had its part, and a very violent one, in those
cruel measures which proved to be so absolutely
inefficacious. The Church of Antioch, or, at least, the
fraction of that Church which attached itself to St
Paul, had at this moment a chief, regarded with the
most profound respect, who was called Ignatius.
This name is probably the Latin equivalent of the
Syriac name Nourana. The reputation of Ignatius
had spread through all the Churches, especially in
Asia Minor. Under circumstances which are un
known to us, probably as the result of some popular
movement, he was arrested, condemned to death, and,
as he was not a Roman citizen, ordered to be taken to
Rome to be delivered to the beasts in the amphi
theatre. For that fate the noblest victims were
reserved, men worthy to be shown to the Roman
people. The journey of this courageous confessor
from Antioch to Rome along the coasts of Asia,
Macedonia, and Greece was a sort of triumphal pro
gress. The Churches of the cities at which he
touched flocked around him, asking for his counsels.
He, on his part, wrote letters full of instruction, to
which his position, like that of St Paul, prisoner of
Jesus Christ, gave the highest authority. At Smyrna,
in particular, Ignatius found himself in communica
tion with all the Churches of Asia. Polycarp, Bishop
of Smyrna, saw him, and retained a profound memory
of him. Ignatius had from that place an extensive
correspondence : his letters were received with almost
as much respect as the apostolic writings. Sur
rounded by couriers of a sacred character, who came
and went, he was more like a powerful personage
than a prisoner. The spectacle impressed the very
250 THE GOSPELS AND
Pagans, and served as the foundation for a curious
romance which has been handed down to us.
Almost the whole of the authentic epistles of
Ignatius appear to have been lost. Those which we
possess under his name addressed to the Ephesians,
to the Maghesians, to the Tralliens, to the Phila-
delphians, to the Smyrniotes, to Polycarp, are apocry
phal. The four first were written from Smyrna ; the
two last from Alexandria-Troas. The six works are
more or less feeble reproductions of the same original.
Genius and individuality are absolutely wanting.
But it appears that amongst the letters which Ignatius
wrote from Smyrna, there was one addressed to the
faithful at Rome, after the manner of St Paul. This
piece, such as we have it, impressed all ecclesiastical
antiquity. Irenseus, Origen, and Eusebius cite it and
admire it. Its style has a harsh and pronounced
flavour, something strong and popular ; pleasantry is
pushed even to playing upon words; as a matter
of taste, certain points are urged with a shocking
exaggeration, but the liveliest faith, the most ardent
thirst for death, have never inspired such passionate
accents. The enthusiasm of the martyr who for six
hundred years was the dominant spirit of Chris
tendom, has received from the author of this extra
ordinary fragment, whoever he may be, its most
exalted expressions.
After many prayers I am permitted to see your holy faces ;
I have even obtained more than I asked ; for if God give me
grace to endure to the end, I hope that I shall embrace you as
the prisoner of Jesus Christ. The business has begun well,
seeing that nothing prevents me from awaiting the lot which
has been appointed to me. Verily it is for you that I am con
cerned. 1 fear lest your affection should be hurtful to me.
You would risk nothing, but I should lose God himself if you
succeed in saving me . . . Never again shall I find such an
opportunity, and you, if you will have the charity to remain
quiet, never will you have taken part in a better work. If you
keep silence, in short, I shall belong to God ; if you love my
flesh, I shall again be cast into the conflict. Let me suffer whilst
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 251
the altar is ready, so that, united in chorus by love, you may
sing to the Father in Christ Jesus, " Oh, great goodness of God
who hath deigned to bring the Bishop of Syria from the rising
to the going down of the sun ! " It is good to lie down from
the world with God that we may rise with him.
You have never done evil to any ; why then begin to-day ?
You have been masters to so many others ! I ask but one thing ;
do what you teach, what you prescribe. Ask only for me strength
from within and from without, so that I may be not only
called Christian but really a Christian, when I shall have passed
away from this world. Nothing that is visible is good. What
thou seest is temporal. What thou seest not is eternal. Our
God, Jesus Christ, existing in his father, appears no more.
Christianity is not only a work of silence ; it becomes a work of
splendour when it is hated of the world.
I write to the Churches : I inform all that I am assured of
dying for God, if you do not prevent me. I beg you not to
prove yourselves by your intemperate goodness my worst
enemies. Let me be the food of beasts, thanks to whom it shall
be given me to enjoy God ; I am the wheat of God, I must be
ground by the teeth of beasts that I may be found the pure bread
of Christ. Rejoice therefore that they shall be my tomb, and
that nothing shall be left of my body, that my funeral shall
thus cost no man aught. Then shall I be truly the disciple of
Christ, when the world shall see my body no more.
From Syria to Rome, upon land, upon sea, by day and by
night, I fight already against the "beasts, chained as I am to ten
leopards (I speak of the soldiers who guard me, and who show
themselves the more cruel the more good is done to them).
Thanks to their ill-treatment, I am formed, "but I am not
thereby justified." I shall gain, I assure you, when I find my
self face to face with the beasts which await me. I hope to
meet them in good temper ; if needs be, I will caress them with
my hands, that they may devour me alone, and that they may
not, as they have done to some, show themselves afraid to touch
me. If they do it unwillingly, I will force them.
Forgive me. I know which is best for me. It is now that I
begin to be a true disciple. No ! no power, visible or invisible,
shall prevent me from rejoicing in Jesus Christ. Fire and cross ;
troops of beasts ; broken bones ; limbs lopped off ; crushing of
the whole body, all the punishments of the devil, may fall upon
me, if only I may rejoice in Jesus Christ . . . My love has been
crucified, and there is no longer in me ardour for the material
part ; there is within me only a living water which murmurs
and says to me, " Come to the Father." I take pleasure no
longer in corruptible food, nor in the joys of this life. I desire
the bread of God, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus
252 THE GOSPELS AND
Christ, the Son of God, born in the end of time, of the race of
David, and of Abraham ; and I desire to drink his blood, which
is incorruptible love and life eternal.
Sixty years after the death of Ignatius, the charac
teristic phrase of this fragment, " I am the wheat of
God," was traditional in the Church, and was repeated
to sustain the courage of martyrs. Perhaps this was
a matter of oral tradition ; perhaps also the letter is
authentic at bottom I mean as to those energetic
phrases by which Ignatius expressed his desire to
suffer, and his love for Jesus. In the authentic nar
rative of the martyrdom of Poly carp (155), there are,
it would appear, allusions to the very text of that
Epistle to the Romans which we now possess. Ignatius
becomes thus the great master of martyrdom, the
exciter to enthusiasm for death for Jesus. His letters,
true or superstitious, were the collection from which
might be drawn striking expressions and exalted
sentiments. The deacon Stephen had by his heroism
sanctified the Diaconate and the ecclesiastical minis
tries ; with still great splendour the Bishop of Antioch
surrounded with an aureole, the functions of the
Episcopate. It was not without reason that writings
were attributed to him in which those functions were
hyperbolically depicted. Ignatius was really the
patron saint of the Episcopate, the creator of the
privilege of the chiefs of the Church, the first victim
of their redoubtable duties.
The most curious thing is that this history, told
more recently by one of the most intelligent writers
of the age by Lucian, inspired him with the principal
features of his little picture of manners, entitled " Of
the Death of Peregrinus." It is scarcely to be doubted
that Lucian borrowed from the narratives of Ignatius
the passages in which he represents his charlatan
playing the part of Bishop and Confessor, chained
in Syria, shipped for Italy, surrounded by the faithful
with cares and attentions, receiving from all parts
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 253
deputations of ministers sent to console him. Pere-
grinus, like Ignatius, addresses from his captivity to the
celebrated towns which he finds upon his way, letters
full of counsels and of exhortations that they should
observe the laws; he institutes, in view of these
messages, missions clothed with a religious character ;
finally he appears before the Emperor, and defies his
power, with an audacity which Lucian finds impertin
ent, but which the admirers of the fanatic represent
as a movement of holy liberty.
In the Church the memory of Ignatius was especi
ally exalted by the partisans of St Paul. To have
seen Ignatius was a favour almost as great as to have
seen St Paul. The high authority of the martyr was
one of the reasons which contributed to the success of
this group, whose right to exist in the Church of Jesus
was still so greatly contested. Towards the year 170,
a disciple of St Paul, zealous for the establishment of
episcopal authority, conceived the project, in imitation
of the pastoral epistles attributed to the Apostle, of
composing, under the name of Ignatius, a series of
epistles designed to inculcate an anti-Jewish concep
tion of Christianity, as well as ideas of strict hierarchy
and Catholic orthodoxy in opposition to the errors of
the Docetists and of certain Gnostic sects. These
writings, which it was desired should be regarded as
having been collected by Polycarp, were accepted with
enthusiasm, and had in the constitution of discipline
and dogma a commanding influence.
By the side of Ignatius we may see, in the oldest
documents, two persons figure who appear to have
been associated with him, Zozimus and Rufus.
Ignatius does not appear to have had travelling
companions ; Zozimus and Rufus were perhaps persons
well known in the ecclesiastical circles of Greece and
of Asia, and recommended by their high devotion to
the Church of Christ.
About the same time another martyr may have
254 THE GOSPELS AND
suffered, to whom his title of head of the Church of
Jerusalem and his relationship with Jesus gave great
notoriety. I mean Simeon, son, or rather great-grand
son, of Cleophas. The opinion decided amongst the
Christians, and probably accepted by those around
them, according to which Jesus had been of the race
of David, attributed this title to all his blood-relations.
Now in the state of effervescence in which Palestine
was, such a title could not be borne without risk.
Already under Domitian we have seen the Roman
authority entertain apprehensions apropos of the pre
tensions avowed by the sons of Jude. Under Trajan
the same disquietude came to light. The descend
ants of Cleophas, who presided over the Church of
Jerusalem, were too modest to boast much of a descent
which non-Christians might perhaps have disputed,
but they could not hide it from the affiliated of the
Church of Jesus; from those heretics Ebionites,
Essenes, Elkasaites some of whom were hardly Chris
tians. A denunciation was addressed by some of those
sectaries to the Roman authority, and Simeon, son of
Cleophas, was brought to judgment. The Consular
Legate of Judea at this moment was Tiberius Claudius
Atticus, who appears to have been the father of the
celebrated Herod Atticus. He was an obscure
Athenian, whom the discovery of an immense treasure
had suddenly enriched, and who by his fortune had
succeeded in obtaining the title of surrogate consul.
He showed himself, in the circumstances of this case,
extremely cruel. During many days he tortured the
unhappy Simeon, without doubt to force him to reveal
pretended secrets. Atticus and his assessors admired
his courage, but he finished by crucifying him.
Hegesippus, from whom we have these details, assures
us that the accusers of Simeon were themselves con
vinced that they were of the race of David, and
perished with him. We ought not to be too much
surprised by such denunciations. We have already
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 255
seen that the internal rivalries of the Jewish and
Christian sects had the greatest share in the persecu
tion of the year 64, or at least in the deaths of the
Apostles Peter and Paul.
Rome at that period appears to have had no
martyrs. Among the Presbyteri and Episcopi who
governed that capital Church are reckoned Evarestes,
Alexander, and Xystus, who appear to have died in
peace.
CHAPTER XXIII.
END OF TRAJAN REVOLT OF THE JEWS.
TRAJAN, the conqueror of the Dacii, adorned with all
the triumphs, arrived at the highest degree of power
which man had until then attained, revolved, notwith
standing his sixty years, boundless projects with
regard to the East. The limit of the Empire in Syria
and in Asia Minor was as yet but ill-assured. The
recent destruction of the Nabathean kingdom post
poned for centuries all danger from the Arabs. But
the kingdom of Armenia, although in law vassal to
the Romans, constantly inclined towards the Parthian
alliance. In the Dacian war, the Arsacides had had
relations with Decebalus. The Parthian Empire,
master of Mesopotamia, menaced Antioch, and created,
for provinces incapable of defending themselves, a
perpetual danger. An Eastern expedition, having for
its object the annexation to the Empire of Armenia,
Osrohenia and Mygdonia, countries which in effect,
after the campaigns of Lucius Verus and of Septimius
Severus, belonged to the Empire, would have been
reasonable. But Trajan did not take sufficient
256 THE GOSPELS AND
account of the state of the East. He did not see that
beyond Syria, Armenia, and the north of Mesapo-
tamia, which it is easy to make the rampart of
Western civilisation, extends the ancient East ;
traversed by nomadic tribes, containing, side by side
with the cities, indocile populations, amongst which
it is impossible to establish order after the European
fashion. This East has never been conquered by
civilisation in a durable manner ; even Greece reigned
there only in the most transitory way. To hew out
Roman provinces in a world totally different in
climate, races, manner of living, from what Rome had
hitherto assimilated, was a veritable chimera. The
Empire, which had need of all its strength against the
German impulse on the Rhine and the Danube, was
about to prepare upon the Tigris a struggle not less
difficult, for supposing that the Tigris had really
become in all its course a river-frontier, Rome would
not have had behind the great ditch the support of
the solid Gallic and Germanic populations of the
West. Through not having understood that, Trajan
made a mistake which can only be compared with
that of Napoleon in 1812. His expedition against
the Parthians was analogous to that of the Russian
campaign. Admirably planned out, the expedition
started with a series of victories, then degenerated
into a struggle against nature, and concluded with a
retreat which cast a sombre veil over the end of a
most brilliant reign.
Trajan left Italy, which he was not again to see, in
the month of October 113. He passed the winter
months at Antioch, and in the spring of 114 began
the campaign of Armenia. The result was prodi
gious : in September, Armenia was reduced to a
Roman province ; the limits of the Empire extended
to the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. Trajan rested
the following winter at Antioch.
The results of the year 115 were not less extra-
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 257
ordinary. The Mesopotamia of the North, with its
more or less independent principalities, was conquered
or subjected. The Tigris was attained. The Jews
were numerous in these parts. The dynasty of the
Izates and Monobazes, always vassal to the Parthians,
was mistress of Nisibe. As in 70, it no doubt resisted
the Romans, but it was necessary to yield. Trajan
passed the following winter at Antioch, where, on the
1 3th December, he was nearly destroyed in a frightful
earthquake which destroyed the city, and from which
he escaped only with the greatest difficulty.
The year 116 witnessed miracles: the times of Alex
ander seemed restored. Trajan conquered Adiabene,
beyond the Tigris, in spite of a vigorous resistance.
There he should have stopped. Pushing his fortune
to its limit, Trajan penetrated to the heart of the
Parthian Empire. The strategy of the Parthians, like
that of the Russians in 1813, consisted in at first offer
ing no resistance. Trajan marched without opposi
tion as far as Babylon ; took ^Esiphon, the western
capital of the Empire, thence descended the Tigris
to the Persian Gulf, saw those distant seas which
appeared to the Romans only as a vision, and regained
Babylon. Then the black spots began to accumulate
upon the horizon. Towards the end of 116 Trajan
heard at Babylon that revolt had broken out behind
him. The Jews had without doubt taken a great
part in it. They were numerous in Babylonia. The
relations between the Jews of Palestine and those of
Babylonia were continual the doctors passed from
one country to the other with great facility. A vast
secret society escaping thus from all supervision
created a political vehicle of the most active kind.
Trajan confided the duty of crushing this dangerous
movement to Lusius Quietus, chief of the Berber
cavalry, who had placed himself with his goum at
the service of the Romans, and had rendered the
greatest services in the Parthian wars. Quietus re
ft
258 THE GOSPELS ANt
conquered Nisibe, Edessa ; but Trajan began to see
the impossibilities of the enterprise in which he was
engaged, and meditated retreat.
Disquieting news reached him, blow upon blow.
The Jews were everywhere in revolt. Nameless
horrors passed in Cyrenaica. The Jewish fury at
tained to heights which had never yet been known.
This poor people again lost their heads. Perhaps
there was already, in Africa, a presentiment of the
revival of fortune which was awaiting Trajan; it
may be that the Jewish rebellions of Gyrene, the
most fanatical of all, were anticipated on the faith
of some prophet, that the day of wrath against the
Pagans had arrived, and that it was time to begin the
Messianic exterminations. All the Jews were agitated
as under a demoniacal attack. It was less a revolt
than a massacre, with details of indescribable ferocity.
Having at their head a certain Lucora, who enjoyed
amongst his friends the title of King, these madmen
set to work to butcher Greeks and Romans, eating the
flesh of those whom they had slaughtered, making
belts of their bowels, rubbing themselves with their
blood, skinning them and clothing themselves with
the skin. Madmen were seen sawing unfortunate
men in two through the midst of their bodies. At
other times the insurgents delivered the Pagans to
the beasts, in memory of w.hat they themselves had
suffered, and forced them to fight with each other
like gladiators. Two hundred and twenty thousand
Cyreneans are believed to have been slaughtered in
this way. It was almost the entire population : the
province became a desert. To repeople it, Hadrian
was obliged to bring colonists from other places, but
the country never again flourished as it had done
under the Greeks.
From Cyrenaica the epidemic of massacre extended
to Egypt and to Cyprus. The latter witnessed atro
cities. Under the leadership of a certain Artemion
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 259
the fanatics destroyed the town of Salamine and
exterminated the entire population. The number of
Cypriotes butchered, was estimated at 240,000. The
resentment for such cruelties was such that the
Cypriotes decreed the exclusion of the Jews from
their island in perpetuity ; even the Jew cast upon
their coast by the act of God was put to death.
In Egypt the Jewish insurrection assumed the pro
portions of a veritable war. At first the rebels had
fhe advantage. Lupus, Prefect of Egypt, was obliged
to retreat. The alarm in Alexandria was acute. The
Jews, to fortify themselves, destroyed the Temple of
Nemesis raised by Caesar to Pompey. The Greek
population succeeded, however, not without a struggle,
in gaining the upper hand. All the Greeks of Lower
Egypt took refuge with Lupus in the city, and made
there a great entrenched camp. It was time. The
Cyreneans, led by Lucora, came to join their brethren
of Alexandria, and to form with them a single army.
Deprived of the support of their Alexandrini co-reli
gionists, all killed or prisoners, but strengthened by
bands from other parts of Egypt, they dispersed them
selves, killing and plundering, over the Thebaid. They
especially sought to seize the functionaries who tried
to gain the cities of the coast, Alexandria and Pelusia.
Appian, the future historian, then young, who exer
cised municipal functions in Alexandria, his country,
was nearly captured by these madmen. Lower Egypt
was inundated with blood. The fugitive Pagans found
themselves pursued like wild beasts ; the deserts by
the side of the Isthmus of Suez were filled with people
who hid themselves and endeavoured to come to an un
derstanding with the Arabs, so as to escape from death.
The position of Trajan in Babylonia became more
and more critical. The wandering Arabs in the space
between the two rivers caused him much difficulty. The
impregnable stronghold of Hatra, inhabited by a war
like tribe, stopped him altogether. The surrounding
260 THE GOSPELS AND
country is deserted, unhealthy, without wood or water,
desolated by mosquitoes, exposed to frightful atmo
spheric troubles. Trajan committed, without doubt
from a sense of honour, the mistake of wishing to
reduce it. As later Septimus Severus and Ardeschir
Babek, he failed. The army was frightfully wasted
with sickness. The city was a great centre of sun-
worship ; it was thought that the god was fighting for
his temple; storms breaking out at the moment of
attack, filled the soldiers with terror. Trajan, who
was already suffering from the malady which carried
him off a few months later, raised the siege. The
retreat was difficult, and marked by more than one
partial disaster.
About the month of April 117, the Emperor set
out on his return to Antioch, sad, ill, and irritable.
The East had conquered him without fighting. All
those who had bowed before the conqueror raised
their heads again. The results of three years of
campaigning, full of marvellous struggles against
nature, were lost. Trajan had to begin over again, if
he were not to lose his reputation for invincibility.
All at once grave news came to prove to him what
grave dangers were concealed in the situation created
by the recent reverses. The Jewish revolt, until then
limited to Cyrenaica and Egypt, threatened to extend
itself through Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia.
Always on the watch for signs of weakness in the
Roman Empire, the enthusiasts fancied for the tenth
time that they saw the preliminary signs of the end
of an abhorred domination. Excited by books like
Judith and the apocalypse of Esdras. they believed
that the day of Edom was come. The cries of joy
which they had uttered at the deaths of Nero and
Domitian, they uttered once more. The generation
which had made the great Revolution had almost
disappeared ; the new had learned nothing. These
hard heads, obstinate and full of passion, were in-
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 261
capable of enlarging the narrow circle of iron that an
inveterate psychological heredity had riveted around
them. What passed in Judea is obscure, and it is not
proved that any positive act of war or of massacre
took place there. From Antioch, where he resided,
Adrian, Governor of Syria, appears to have succeeded
in maintaining order. Far from encouraging rebellion,
the doctors of Jabneh had shown, in the scrupulous
observation of the Law, a new way of arriving at the
peace of the soul. Casuistry had in their hands
become a plaything, which like all playthings ought
to invite much to patience. As to Mesopotamia, it is
natural that a half-subdued population which a year
before were in arms, and amongst whom there were
not merely dispersed Jews but Jewish armies and
dynasties, should have broken out after the check of
Hatra, and upon the first indications of the approach
ing death of Trajan. It appears, besides, that the
Romans acted with vigour, often upon mere suspicion
They feared that the example of Cyrenaica, of Egypt,
and of Cyprus might be contagious. Before the
massacres had broken out, Trajan confided to Lucius
Quietus the duty of expelling all the Jews from the
conquered provinces. Quietus went thither as to an
expedition. This African, cruel and pitiless, supported
by light Moorish cavalry, men who rode bare-backed
without saddle or bridle, went like the modern Bashi
Bazouk, massacring right and left. A very large part
of the Jewish population of Mesopotamia were exter
minated. To reward the services of Quietus, Trajan
detached Palestine from the province of Syria for
him, and created him Imperial Legate, thus placing
him in the same rank as Adrian.
The revolt of Cyrenaica, of Egypt, and of Cyprus,
still continued. Trajan chose one of his most dis
tinguished lieutenants, Marcius Turbo, to suppress it.
He gave him a land and a sea force, and numerous
cavalry. A regular war with many battles was re-
262 THE GOSPELS AND
quired to put an end to these madmen. There were
regular butcheries. All the Cyrenian Jews, and those
from Egypt who had joined them, were massacred.
Alexandria the blockade raised at last breathed
once more, but the destruction of the city had been
considerable. One of the first acts of Hadrian after
becoming Emperor, was to repair the ruins and to
give himself out as the restorer.
Such was this deplorable movement, in which the
Jews appear to have been wrong from the first, and
which finished by ruining them in the opinion of the
civilised world. Poor Israel fell into furious mad
ness. These horrible cruelties, so far removed from
the Christian spirit, widened the ditch of separation
between Judaism and the Church. The Christian,
becoming more and more of an idealist, consoled him
self more and more by his gentleness, by his resigned
attitude. Israel had made himself a cannibal, rather
than allow his prophets to be liars. Pseudo-Esdras,
twenty years before, contented himself with the
tender reproach of a pious soul which thinks itself
forgotten of God : now it is a question of killing
everybody, of annihilating the Pagans, that it may
not be said that God has failed to keep his promise to
Jacob. Every great fanaticism, pressed by the ruin
of its hopes, ends in madness, and becomes a peril to
the reason of all humanity.
The material diminution of Judaism, as the result
of this inept campaign, was very considerable. The
number of those who perished was enormous. From
that moment the Jewry of Gyrene and Egypt almost
disappeared. The powerful community of Alexandria,
which had been an essential element of Oriental life,
was no longer important. The great synagogue of
Diapleuston, which passed in the eyes of the Jews for
one of the wonders of the world, was destroyed. The
Jewish quarter near the Lochias became a field of
ruins and of tombs.
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 263
CHAPTER XXIV.
DEFINITIVE SEPARATION OF THE CHURCH AND THE
SYNAGOGUE.
FANATICISM knows no repentance. The monstrous
error of 117 scarcely left more than the recollection
of a festivity in the Jewish mind. Amongst the
number of days when fasting was forbidden, and
mourning must be suspended, figures the 12th December,
the iom Traianos or "day of Trajan," not because the
war of 116-117 gave reason for any anniversary of
victory, but because of the tragic end which the agada
ascribed to the enemy of Israel. The massacres of
Quietus remained, on the other hand, in tradition,
under the name of polemos schel Quitos. A progress
of Israel in the way of mourning was attached to it :
After the polemos schel Aspasionos, crowns and the use of
tambourines are forbidden to bridegrooms.
After the polemos schel Quitos, crowns were forbidden to
brides, and the teaching of the Greek language to one s son waa
prohibited.
After the last Polemos, the bride was forbidden to go out of
the town in a litter.
Thus every folly brought about a new sequestration,
a new renunciation of some part of life. Whilst
Christianity became more and more Greek and Latin,
and its writers conformed to a good Hellenic style,
the Jew interdicted the study of Greek, and shut him
self up obstinately in his unintelligible Syro-Hebraic
dialect. The root of all good intellectual culture is
cut off for him for a thousand years. It is especially
in this period that the decisions were given which
present Greek education as an impurity, or at best as
a frivolity.
The man who announced himself at Jabneh, and
grew from day to day as the future chief of Israel,
264 THE GOSPELS AND
was a certain Aquiba, pupil of the Rabbi Tarphon, of
obscure origin, unconnected with the great families
who held the chairs and filled the great offices of the
nation. He was descended from proselytes, and had
had a poverty-stricken youth. He was, it would seem,
a sort of democrat, full at first of a ferocious hatred
against the doctors in the midst of whom he might
one day sit. His exegesis, and his casuistry, were the
height of subtlety. Every letter, every syllable of
the Canonical texts, became significant, and attempts
were made to draw meanings from them. Aquiba
was the author of the method which, according to the
expression of the Talmud, " from every feature of a
letter draws whole bushels of decision." We can only
admit that in the revealed Code there was the least
that was voluntary, the smallest liberty of style, or of
orthography. Thus the particle which is the simple
mark of the objective case, and which may be inserted
or omitted in Hebrew, furnished puerile inductions.
This touched madness ; we are only two steps from
the Cabbala and the Notarikon, silly combinations, in
which the texts represent no longer the language of
humanity, but is taken for a divine book of magic.
In detail the consultations of Aquiba are recommended
by their moderation, the sentences which are attri
buted to him have even the marks of a certain liberal
spirit. But a violent fanaticism spoiled all his
qualities. The greatest contradictions spring up in
those minds which are at once subtle and uncultivated,
whence the superstitious study of a solitary text had
banished the right sense of language and of reason.
Incessantly travelling from synagogue to synagogue
in all the countries of the Mediterranean, and perhaps
even amongst the Parthians, Aquiba kept up amongst
his co-religionaries the strange fire with which he
himself was filled, and which soon became so melan
choly for his country.
A monument of the mournful sadness of these times
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 265
appears in the apocalypse of Baruch. The work is
an imitation of the apocalypse of Esdras, and, like it,
is divided into seven visions. Baruch, secretary to
Jeremiah, receives from God the order to remain in
Jerusalem, to assist in the punishment of the guilty
city. He curses the fate which has given him birth,
only that he may witness the outrages offered to his
mother. He prays God to spare Israel. But for
Israel, who wilt praise him ? Who will explain his
law ? Is the world then destined to return to its
primitive silence ? and what joy for the Pagans if
they are able to go into the countries of their idols
to rejoice before them over the defeats which they
have inflicted upon the true God.
The divine interlocutor answers that the Jerusalem
which had been destroyed was not the Eternal Jeru
salem, prepared since the times of Paradise, which was
shown to Adam before his fall, and a glimpse of which
was seen by Abraham and Moses. It was not the
Pagans who destroyed the city ; it was the wrath of
God which annihilated it. An angel descends from
heaven, carries all the sacred objects from the Temple,
and buries them. The angels then demolish the city.
Baruch sings a song of mourning. He is indignant
that nature should continue her course, that the earth
smiles, and is not burned up by an eternal midday
sun.
Labourers, cease to sow, and thou, O Earth, cease to bring
forth harvests ; wherefore dost thou waste thy wine, O thou
Vine, since Zion is no more ? Bridegrooms, denounce your rights;
virgins, deck yourselves no more with crowns ; women, cease to
pi-ay that ye may become mothers. Henceforth the barren shall
rejoice, and the fruitful mothers shall weep ; for why bring
forth children in sorrow, whom ye must bury with tears ?
Henceforth, speak no more of charms ; neither discuss beauty.
Take the keys of the sanctuary, O priests, cast them towards
heaven, return them to the Lord, and say to him, " Preserve
now thine own house ! " And ye, O virgins, who sew your
linen and your silk with the gold of Ophir, hasten and cast all
into the fire, that the flames may carry all these things to him
266 THE GOSPELS ANt)
that hath made them, and that our enemies may not rejoice in
them. Earth, attend ! Dust take heart, to announce in Sheol
and say to the dead : " Happy are ye as compared with our
selves ! "
Pseudo-Baruch, no better than pseudo-Esdras, can
render account of the conduct of God towards his
people. Assuredly the turn of the Gentiles will come.
If God has given to his people such severe lessons,
what will he do with those who have turned his
benefits against him ? But how explain the fate of
so many of the just who have scrupulously observed
the Law and have been exterminated ? Why has not
the Eternal had pity upon Zion for their sakes ?
Why has he taken account only of the wicked ?
" What hast thou done with thy servants ? " cries the
pious writer. "We can no longer understand why
thou art our Creator. When the world had no in
habitants, thou didst create man as minister of thy
works, to show that the world existed only for man,
and not man for the world. And now, behold, the
world which thou hast made for us lasts, and we, for
whom thou hast made it, disappear."
God answers that man has been made free and
intelligent. If he has been punished, it is only his
desert. This world for the just man is a trial ; the
world to come will be a crown. Length of time is
a relative matter. Better to have commenced by
ignominy and finished with happiness than to have
begun in glory and finished in shame. Time is,
moreover, pressing on, and will go by much more
quickly in the future than in the past.
" If man had but this life," answers the melancholy dreamer,
" nothing could be more bitter than his fate. How long shall the
triumph of impiety continue ? How long, O Lord ! wilt thou
leave it to be believed that thy patience is weakness ? Arise ;
close Shed ; forbid it henceforward to receive fresh dead men ;
and cause limbo to give up the souls that are enclosed therein.
Behold how long Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the others, who
sleep in the earth, have been waiting, those for whom thou hast
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 267
said that the world was created ! Show thy glory ; delay it no
longer."
God contents himself with saying that the time
is fixed and that the end is not far distant. The
Messianic sorrows have already begun ; but the signs
of the catastrophe will be isolated, partial, so that
men shall scarcely be able to see them. At the
moment when it shall be said, "The Almighty has
forgotten the earth," when the despair of the just
shall be at its height, this shall be the hour of
awakening. Signs shall stretch forth over the whole
universe. Palestine alone shall be safe from calamity.
Then the Messiah shall be revealed. Behemoth and
Leviathan shall serve as food to those who shall be
saved. The earth shall yield up ten thousand for
one ; a single stem of the vine shall have a thousand
branches ; every branch shall bear a thousand grapes,
and every grape shall yield a hogshead of wine. Joy
shall be perfect. In the morning a breath shall leave
the bosom of God, bearing the perfume of the most
exquisite flowers; in the evening, another breath
bearing a wholesome dew. Manna shall fall from
Heaven. The dead who sleep in hope of the Messiah
shall rise. The receptacles of the souls of the just
shall open ; the multitude of happy souls shall be all
of one mind ; the first shall rejoice and the last shall
not be sad. The impious shall be consumed with
rage, seeing that the moment of their punishment is
come. Jerusalem shall be renewed, and crowned for
Eternity.
The Roman Empire then appears to our seer like
a forest which covers the earth ; the shadow of the
forest veils the truth ; all that there is of evil in the
world hides itself there and finds a shelter. It is
the harshest and the worst of all the Empires which
succeed each other. The Messianic Kingdom, on the
contrary, is represented by a vine under whose shadow
a sweet and gentle spring arises which runs towards
268
the forest. In approaching this last, the current
changes into impetuous waves which uproot it as
well as the mountains which surround it. The forest
is carried away, until there remains of it nothing
but a cedar. This cedar represents the last Roman
sovereign remaining standing when all the legions
shall have been exterminated (according to us, Trajan,
after his reverses in Macedonia). He is overthrown
in his turn. The vine then says to him :
" Is it not thou, O Cedar ! who art the relic of the forest of
malice ; who seizest upon what does not belong to thee ; who
never hast pity upon that which is thine own ; who wouldest
reign over that which was far from thee ; who boldest in the
nets of impiety all that approacheth thee ; and who art proud
as though thou couldest never be uprooted ? Behold thine hour
is come. Go, O Cedar ; share the fate of the forest which has
disappeared before thee, and let thine ashes mingle with it."
The cedar is short, is cast down to the earth, and
fire is kindled. The chief is enchained and brought
upon Mount Sion. There the Messiah convicts him
of impiety, shows him the wickedness which has been
wrought by his armies, and kills him. The vine then
extends itself on all sides and covers the earth ; the
earth reclothes itself with flowers which never fade.
The Messiah will reign until the end of the corruptible
world. The wicked, during this time, shall burn in a
fire where none shall pity them.
Oh, blindness of man, who will not discern the
approach of the Great Day ! On the eve of the event
they will live calm and careless. They will see
miracles without understanding them ; true and false
prophecies shall grow in all parts. Like pseudo-
Esdras, our visionary believes in the small number of
the elect, and in the enormous number of the damned.
" Just men rejoice in your sufferings ; for a day of
trial here below, ye shall have an eternity of glory."
Like pseudo-Esdras again he disquiets himself with
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 269
great na/ivett concerning the physical difficulties of
the Resurrection. In what form shall the dead arise?
Will they keep the same body that they had before ?
Pseudo-Baruch does not hesitate. The earth will
restore the dead which have been entrusted to her, as
she has received them. " She shall give them back,"
saith God, "as I have given them to her." That will
be necessary to convince the sceptical of the resurrec
tion ; they must have ocular evidence of the identity
of those whom they have known.
After the judgment, a marvellous change will be
wrought. The damned shall become more ugly than
they were ; the just shall become beautiful, brilliant,
glorious ; their figures shall be transformed into a
luminous ideal. The rage of the wicked shall be
frightful, seeing those whom they have persecuted here
below glorified above them. They will be forced to
assist at this spectacle, before being taken away for
punishment. The just shall see marvels; the invisible
world shall be unrolled before them ; the hidden
times shall be discovered. No more old age ; equal to
the angels : like the stars ; they may change them
selves into whatever form they will ; they will go
from beauty to beauty, from glory to glory ; all Para
dise shall be open to them ; they shall contemplate
the majesty of the mystical beasts which are under
the throne ; all the armies of angels shall await their
arrival. The first who enter shall receive the last,
the last shall recognise those whom they knew to
have preceded them.
These dreams are pervaded by some glimpses of
a sufficiently lucid good sense. More than pseudo-
Esdras, pseudo-Baruch has pity on man, and protests
against a theology which has no bowels. Man has
not said to his father, " Beget me," nor has he said to
Sheol, "Open to receive me." The individual is
responsible only for himself ; each of us is Adam for
his own soul. But fanaticism leads him soon to the
270 THE GOSPELS AND
most terrible thoughts. He sees rising from the sea
a cloud composed alternately of zones of black and of
clear water. These are the alternations of faith and
unfaith in Israel. The angel Ramiel, who explains
these mysteries to him, has judgments of the most
sombre rigorism. The fine epochs are those in which
they have massacred the nations which sinned, and
burned and stoned the heterodox, when they dug up
the bones of the wicked to burn them, when every
sin against legal purity was punished with death.
The good King " for whom the celestial glory was
created," is he who does not suffer an uncircumcised
man upon the earth.
After the spectacle of the twelve zones a deluge of
black water descends, mingled with stenches and with
fire. It is the period of transition between the king
dom of Israel and the coming of the Messiah a time
of abominations, of wars, of plagues, of earthquakes.
The earth seems to wish to devour its inhabitants. A
flash of lightning (the Messiah) sweeps out all, purifies
all, cures all. The miserable survivors of the plagues
shall be given over to the Messiah, who will kill them.
All who have not oppressed Israel shall live. Every
nation which has governed Israel with violence shall
be put to the sword. In the midst of these sufferings
the Holy Land alone shall be at peace and shall pro
tect its people.
Paradise shall then be realised upon earth ; no
more pain, no more suffering, no more sickness, no
more toil. Animals shall serve man spontaneously.
Men will still die, but never prematurely ; women
shall feel no more the pangs of travail ; the harvest
shall be gathered without effort ; the houses shall be
built without fatigue. Hatred, injustice, vengeance,
calumny, shall disappear.
The people received the prophecy of Baruch with
delight. But it was only right that the Jews dis
persed in distant countries should not be deprived
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 271
of so beautiful a revelation. Baruch wrote, therefore,
to the ten tribes and a half of the dispersion, a letter
which he entrusted to an eagle, and which is an
abridgment of the entire book. There, even more
clearly than in the book itself, may be seen the funda
mental idea of the author, which is to bring about the
return of the dispersed Jews to the Holy Land, that
land alone during the Messianic crisis being able to
offer them an assured asylum. The day is approaching
when God will return to the enemies of Israel the
evil which they have done to his people. The youth
of the world is past ; the vigour of creation is spent.
The bucket is near to the well ; the ship to the port ;
the caravan to the city ; life to its end.
We see the intidel nations prosperous, although they act with
impiety ; but their prosperity is like a vapour. We see them
rich although they act with iniquity ; but their riches will last
them as long as a drop of water. We see the solidity of their
power, although they resist God ; but it is worth no more than
spittle. We contemplate their splendour whilst they do not
observe the precepts of the Most High ; but they shall vanish
away like smoke. . . . Let nothing which belongs to the present
time enter into your thoughts ; have patience, for all that has
been promised shall happen. We will not stop over the spec
tacle of the delights which foreign nations may enjoy. Let us
beware lest we be excluded at once from the heritage of two
worlds- ; captives here, tortured hereafter. Let us prepare our
souls that we may rest with our fathers and may not be pun
ished with our enemies.
Baruch receives the assurance that he will be taken
to heaven like Enoch without having tasted death.
We have seen that favour granted, in like manner, to
Esdras, by the author of the apocalypse which is
attributed to this last.
The work of the pseudo- Baruch, like that of the
pseudo- Esdras, was as successful amongst the Chris
tians as amongst the Jews perhaps even more so.
The original Greek was soon lost, but a Syriac trans
lation was made which has come down to us. The
final letter alone, however, was adapted for ihe use
272 THE GOSPELS AND
of the Church. This letter forms an integral part of
the Syriac Bible, at least amongst the Jacobites, and
lessons are taken from it for the Burial Office. We
have seen pseudo-Esdras also furnish for our office for
the dead some of its most gloomy thoughts. Death,
in fact, appears to reign as mistress in these last
fruits of the wandering imagination of Israel.
Pseudo-Baruch is the last writer of the apocryphal
literature of the Old Testament. The Bible which he
knew is the same as that which we perceive behind
the Epistle of Jude and the pretended Epistle of
Barnabas, that is to say, the canonical books of the
Old Testament. The author adds, whilst putting them
on the same footing, books recently fabricated, such as
the Revelations of Moses, the Prayer of Manasseh,
and other agadic compilations. These works, written
in a biblical style, divided into verses, became a sort of
supplement to the Bible. Often even, precisely because
of their modern character, such apocryphal productions
had greater popularity than the ancient Bible, and
were accepted as Holy Scripture on the day of their
appearance, at least by the Christians, who were more
easy in that respect than the Jews. For the future
there will be no more of these books. The Jews
compose no more pasticcios of the Sacred Text ; we
feel amongst them even fears and precautions on this
subject. Hebrew religious poetry of a later date seems
to be expressly written in a style which is not that of
the Bible.
It is possible that the troubles in Palestine, under
Trajan, may have been the occasion for transporting
the Beth-din of Jabneh to Ouscha. The Beth-din, as
far as possible, must be fixed in Judea ; but Jabneh, a
mixed town, sufficiently large, not far from Jerusalem,
might become uninhabitable for the Jews after the
horrible excesses which they had committed in Egypt
and Cyprus. Ouscha was an altogether obscure part
of Galilee. The new patriarchate was of much less
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 273
importance than that of Jabneh. The patriarch of
Jabneh was a prince (nasi) ; he had a sort of court ;
he drew a great prestige from the pretensions of the
family of Hillel to descend from David. The supreme
council of the nation was now going to reside in
the obscure villages of Galilee. " The institutions of
Ouscha" that is to say, the rules which were
settled by the doctors of Ouscha had none the less
an authority of the first order : they occupied a con
siderable place in the history of the Talmud.
What was called the Church of Jerusalem continued
its tranquil existence a thousand leagues removed from
the seditious ideas which animated the nation. A
great number of Jews were converted, and continued to
observe strictly the prescriptions of the Law. The
chiefs of that Church were, moreover, taken from
amongst the circumcised Christians, and all the
Church, not to wound the rigorists, constrained itself
to follow the Mosaic rules. The list of these bishops
of the circumcision is full of uncertainties. The best-
known appears to have been one named Justus. The
controversy between the converted and those who
persisted in pure Mosaism was active but less acri
monious than after Bar Coziba. A certain Juda ben
Nakouza appears to have played an especially brilliant
part. The Christians endeavoured to prove that the
Bible did not exclude the divinity of Jesus Christ.
They insisted upon the word Elohifn, upon the plural
employed by God upon several occasions (for example,
in Genesis i. 26), upon the repetition of the different
names of God, etc. The Jews had no difficulty in
showing that the tendencies of the new sect were in
contradiction with the fundamental doctrines of the
religion of Israel.
In Galilee, the relations of the two sects appear
to have been friendly. A Judeo-Christian of Galilee,
Jacob of Caphar-Shekaniah, appears about this time
to have been much mixed up with the Jewish world
B
274 THE GOSPELS AND
of Sephoris, of the little towns of the neighbourhood.
Not only did he converse with the doctors and quote
to them pretended words of Jesus, but he practised,
like Jaines, the brother of the Lord, spiritual medicine,
and pretended to cure the bite of a serpent by the
name of Jesus. Rabbi Eliezer was, it is said, perse
cuted as inclined to Christianity. Rabbi Joshua ben
Hanania died preoccupied with the new ideas. Chris
tians repeated to him in every tone that God had
turned away from the Jewish nation: "No," he
answered, "His hand is still stretched out over us."
There were conversions in his own family. His
nephew Hananiah being come to Caphar-Nahum, " was
bewitched by the minim " to such a point that he was
seen on an ass on the Sabbath day. When he came
to the house of his uncle Joshua, he cured him of the
sorcery by means of an ointment, but insisted upon
his retirement to Babylon. At another time the
Talmudist narrator appears to desire that it shall be
believed that amongst Christians infamies existed
like those which were laid to the charge of the pre
tended Nicholas. Rabbi Isaiah of Csesarea included in
the same curse the Judeo-Christians who supported
these polemics and the heretical population of Caphar-
Nahum, the primary source of all the evil.
In general the minim, especially those of Caphar-
Nahum, passed for great magicians, and their successes
were attributed to spells and to ocular illusions. We
have already seen that until the third century at least
Jewish doctors continued to work their cures in the
name of Jesus. But the Gospel was cursed : reading
it was strictly forbidden ; the very name of Gospel
gave rise to a play upon words which made it signify
" evident iniquity." A certain Eliza ben Abouyah,
surnamed Aher, who professed a species of gnostic
Christianity, was for his former co-religonists the
type of a perfect apostate. Little by little the Judeo-
Christians were placed by the Jews in the same rank
THE SECOND CHRISTIAN GENERATION. 275
as the Pagans, and much below the Samaritans. Their
bread and their wine were held to be unclean ; their
means of cure proscribed ; their books considered as
repertoires of the most dangerous magic. Hence, the
Churches of Paul offered to the Jews who wished to
be converted a more advantageous position than the
Judeo-Christian Churches, exposed as they were on
the part of Judaism to all the hatred of which
brothers who have quarrelled are capable.
The truth of the apocalyptic image was striking.
The woman protected by God, the Church, had truly
received two eagles wings to fly into the desert far
from the crises of the world and from its sanguinary
dramas. There she grew in peace, and all that was
done against her turned to her. The dangers of her
first childhood are passed; her growth is hence
forward assured.
END OF THE GOSPEL&
APPENDIX.
THE inaccuracy of the information furnished by the Gospels
as to the material circumstances of the life of Jesus, the
dubiety of the traditions of the first century, collected by
Hegesippus, the frequent homonyms which occasion so
much embarrassment in the history of the Jews at all
epochs, render the questions relating to the family of Jesus
almost insoluble. If we hold by a passage from the synoptic
Gospels, Matt. xiii. 55, 56 ; Mark vi. 3, Jesus should have
four brothers and several sisters. His four brothers were
called James, Joseph or Jose, Simon, and Jude, respectively.
Two of these names figure, in fact, in all the ecclesiastical and
apostolic ti-aditions as being " brothers of the Lord." The
personage of " James, brother of the Lord," is, after that of
St Paul, the most perfectly sketched of any of the first
Christian generation. The Epistle of St Paul to the Gala-
tians, the Acts of the Apostles, the superscriptions of the
authentic epistles, or those not ascribed to James and Jude,
the historian Josephus, the Ebionite legend of Peter, the old
Judeo-Christian historian Hegesippus, are agreed in making
him the chief of the old Judeo-Christian Church. The most
authentic of these proofs, the passage in the Epistle to the
Galatians, gives him distinctly the title of dfoXf o$ rov Kvpi ov.
One Jude appears also to have a most indisputable right
to this title. The Jude whose epistle we possess gives him
self the title of afoXpog de laxu(3ou. A person of the name of
James, of sufficient importance to be taken notice of, and
who was given the authority to call himself His brother,
can hardly be the celebrated James of the Epistle to the
Galatians, the Acts, of Josephus, of Hegesippus, of the
278 APPENDIX.
pseudo-Clementine writings. If this James was "brother
of the Lord," Jude, the true or supposed author of the
epistle which forms a part of the canon, was then also a
brother of the Lord. Hegesippus certainly understood him
so to be. This Jude, whose grandson (viuvo/) was sought
out and presented to Domitian as the last representative of
the race of David, was, in the view of the antique historian
of the Church, the brother of Jesus according to the flesh.
Several reasons lead even to the supposition that this Jude
was in his turn the chief of the Church of Jerusalem. Here
is then a second personage who is included in the series of
the four names given by the synoptic Gospels as those of
the brothers of Jesus.
Simon and Jose are not known otherwise than as brothers
of the Lord. But there would be nothing singular in the
fact that two members of the family should remain obscure.
What is much more surprising is that in reconciling other
facts furnished by the Gospels, Hegesippus, and the oldest
traditions of the Church of Jerusalem, a family of cousins-
german of Jesus is formed, bearing almost the same names
which are given by Matthew (xiii. 55) and by Mark (vi. 3),
as those of the brothers of Jesus.
In fact, amongst the women whom the synoptics place
at the foot of the cross of Jesus, and who testify to the
resurrection, there is found one " Mary," mother of James
the Less (6 fUKpos) and of Jose (Matt. xvii. 56 ; Mark xv.
40, 47 ; xiv. 1 ; Luke xxiv. 10). This Mary is certainly
the same as the one whom the fourth Gospel (xix. 25)
places also at the foot of the cross, who is called Mapla, i]
rot KXcaira (which signifies without doubt " Mary, the wife
of Clopas "), and which makes her a sister of the mother of
Jesus. The difficulty which is thus occasioned by the two
sisters being called by the same name is hardly taken into
account by the fourth Evangelist, who only once gives to
the mother of Jesus the name of Mary. Be this as it may,
we have already two cousins-german of Jesus called James
and Jose. We find, moreover, a Simon, son of Clopas,
whom Hegesippus and all those who have transmitted to us
the memories of the primitive Church of Jerusalem, repre
sented as the second Bishop of Jerusalem, and as having
been martyred under Trajan. Finally, there are traces of a
APPENDIX. 279
fourth member of the family of Olopas in that Jude, son
of James, who appears to have succeeded Simeon in the See
of Jerusalem. The family of Clopas appearing to have
retained in an all but hereditary manner the government of
the Church of Jerusalem from Titus to Hadrian, it is not
too bold to assume that the James, the brother of this Jude,
was James the Less, son of Mary Cleophas.
We have thus three sons of Olopas called James, Jose,
Simeon, exactly like the brothers of Jesus mentioned by
the synoptics, without speaking of a hypothetical grandson
in whom was revived the same identical name. Two sisters
bearing the same name was indeed a very singular fact.
What is to be said of a case in which these two sisters
should have had at least three sons bearing the same name 1
No criticism can admit the possibility of such a coincidence.
It is evident that we shall have to seek some solution which
shall dispose of that anomaly.
The orthodox doctors, since St Jerome, thought to re
move the difficulty by taking it for granted that the four
personages enumerated by Mark and Matthew as brothers
of Jesus were, in reality, his cousins-german, sons of Mary
Cleophas. But this is inadmissible. Many other passages
assume that Jesus had full brothers and sisters. The
arrangement of the little scene recounted by Matthew
(xiii. 54, et seq., and Mark vi. 2, et seq.) is very signifi
cant. There the "brothers" are immediately related to
the "mother." The anecdote (Mark iii. 31, et seq.; Matt.
xii 46, et seq.) gives rise to still less ambiguity. Finally
the whole of the Jerusalemitish tradition distinguishes
clearly the "brothers of the Lord" from the family of
Clopas. Simeon, son of Clopas, the second Bishop of Jeru
salem, is called avs-^/ibs roD turqpof. Not a single one of
the a&iXpo! rov Kuplov bears after his name the addition of
rou KXuva. Notoriously James, brother of the Lord, was
not the son of Clopas ; if he had been, he would have also
been the brother of Simeon, his successor. Now Hege-
sippus does not believe this. When we read chapters xi.
and xxxii. of the third book of Eusebius Ecclesiastical
History, we are convinced of it. The chronology will no
longer permit of such a supposition. Simeon died at a very
old age, in the reign of Trajan. James died in the year 62,
280 APPENDIX.
also very old. The difference between the ages of the two
brothers might thus have been forty years or thereabout.
Hence the theory which sees the d,8eX&lt;poi row Ku^/oo in the
sons of Clopas is inadmissible. Let it be added that in the
Gospel of the Hebrews, which is often so superior to the
other synoptic texts, Jesus directly calls James "my brother,"
an expression altogether exceptional, and which people would
certainly never employ to a cousin-german.
Jesus had full brothers and sisters. Only it is possible
that these brothers and sisters were but half-brothers and
half-sisters. Were these brothers and sisters likewise sons
and daughters of Mary 1 This is improbable. In fact, the
brothers appear to have been much older than Jesus. Now
Jesus was, as it would appear, the first-born of his mother.
Jesus, moreover, was, in his youth, designated at Nazareth
by the name of "Son of Mary." For this we have the
most undoubted testimony of the Gospels. This assumes
that he was known for a long time as the only son of a
widow. In fact, such appellations were only employed
where the father was dead, and when the widow had no
other son. Let us instance the case of Piero della Fran-
cesca, the celebrated painter. In fine, the myth of the
virginity of Mary, without excluding absolutely the idea
that Mary may have had afterwards other children by
Joseph, or have been remarried, fits in better with the
hypothesis that she had only one son.
No doubt, the legend is so constructed as to do the great
est violence to truth. Nevertheless, we must remember that
the legend now in question was elaborated by the brothers
and cousins of Jesus themselves. Jesus, the sole and tardy
progeny of the union of a young woman and a man already
reached maturity, offered perfect opportunity for the opinions
according to which his conception had been supernatural.
In such a case, the divine action appeared so much the more
striking in proportion as nature seemed the more impotent.
People take a pleasure in representing children, predestined
to great prophetic vocations, as being born to old men or of
women who have been for a long time sterile Samuel,
John the Baptist, and Mary herself are conspicuous in
stances. The author, also, of the Protovangile of James,
St Epiphanes, etc., ardently insists upon the great age of
APPENDIX. 281
Joseph, induced thereto, no doubt, by d, priori motives, yet
guided also in this latter by a just opinion as to the cir
cumstances in which Jesus was born.
These difficulties could be readily enough removed, if we
were to assume that Joseph had before been married,
and had, by this marriage, sons and daughters, in
particular, James and Jude. These two personages, and
James, at least, appear to have been older than Jesus.
The hostile disposition which was attributed at first to the
brothers of Jesus by the Gospels, the singular contrast
which the principles and the species of life led by James
and Jude, and those of Jesus presents, is, in such a hypo
thesis, somewhat less unaccountable than on the other
suppositions that have been made to get rid of these
contradictions.
How could the sons of Clopas be cousins-german of Jesus 1
They may have been by the same mother, Mary Cleophas,
as the fourth Gospel would have us believe, or by the same
father, Clopas, who is made out by Hegisippus to be a
brother of Joseph, or on both sides at once j for it was
actually possible that the two brothers may have married
two sisters. Between these three hypotheses, the second is
much the more probable. The hypothesis as to two sisters
bearing the same name, is extremely problematical. The
passage in the fourth Gospel (xix. 25) may contain an
error. Let us add that, according to one interpretation, a
laborious one, it is true, yet, nevertheless, admissible, the
expression i] a&tXpJi T^S /j,rirpo$ avrov does not refer to Mapia
T] ToD KXwTra, but to a distinct nameless personage, such as
was the mother of Jesus herself. The aged Hegisippus, so
preoccupied with everything touching the family of Jesus,
appears to have known quite well the truth upon this point.
But how can we admit that the two brothers Joseph and
Clopas had three or even four sons bearing the same names 1
Let us examine the list of the four brothers of Jesus given
by the synoptics James, Jude, Simon, Jose. The first two
have a well-authenticated title to be styled brothers of the
Lord ; the two last, outside the two Synoptic passages, have
no valid claim to it. Just as in the case of the two names
Simon and Simeon, Jose or Joseph, which are to be found
elsewhere in the list of the sons of Clopas, we are led to
282 APPENDIX.
adopt the following hypothesis : that the passages in Mark
and in Matthew, in which are enumerated the four brothers
of Jesus, contain an inadvertence ; that as regards the four
personages named by the synoptics, James and Jude were
indeed brothers of Jesus and sons of Joseph, but that Simon
and Jose have been placed there by mistake. The compiler
of that little writing, like all the agadists, lays little store
by exactness of material details, and, like all the evangelical
narrators (except the fourth), was dominated by the cadence
of Semitic parallelism. The necessities of locution may have
drawn them into making an enumeration, the turn of which
required four proper names. As he only knew two full
brothers of Jesus, he was, perforce, compelled to associate
with them two of their cousins-german. In fact, it seems
that Jesus had indeed more than two brothers. " Have I
not the right to have a wife," says St Paul, " like the other
Apostles, like the brothers of the Lord, like Cephas 1 }"
According to all tradition, James, the brother of the Lord,
was not married. Jude was married, but that was not
sufficient to justify the plural used by St Paul. There
would need to have been a good many of these brothers,
seeing that the exception in the case of James did not
hinder St Paul from regarding generally the brothers of
the Lord as married.
Clopas seems to have been younger than Joseph, and his
eldest son must have been younger than the eldest son of
the latter. It is natural that, if his name was James, a
custom might exist in the family of calling him o /tt/x^o g, in
order to distinguish him from his cousin-german of the same
name. Simeon may have been fifteen years younger than
Jesus, and, strictly speaking, died in the reign of Trajan.
Nevertheless, we prefer to believe that the member of
the Cleophas family martyred under Trajan belonged to
another generation. Mere data regarding the age of James
and Simeon are, moreover, very uncertain. James must
have died at ninety-six, and Simeon at a hundred-and-
twenty. This last assumption is, on the face of it, inadmissible.
On the other hand, if James had been ninety-six, as it ia
pretended, in 62, he must have been born thirty-four years
before Jesus, which is a thing very unlikely.
It remains to inquire whether any of these brothers of
APPENDIX. 283
cousins-german of Jesus did not figure in the lists of the
Apostles which have been conserved to us in the synoptics
and by the author of the Acts. Although the college of the
Apostles and that of the brothers of the Lord were two
distinct groups, it has nevertheless been considered as possible
that a few of the personages may have constituted a part of
both. Indeed the names of James, Jude, and Simeon are
to be found in the lists of the Apostles. James, the son of
Zebedee, has nothing to do with this discussion, no more than
has Judas Iscariot. But what are we to think of this
James, son of Alpheus, whom the four lists of the Apostles
(Matt. x. 2, et seq. ; Mark iii. 1 4, et seq. ; Luke v. 1 3, et seq. ;
Acts i. 13, et seq.) include in the number of the Twelve?
People have often identified the name of AX^a/bg with that
of KAgoT&f, by means of &lt;skn. This is indeed a reconcile
ment which is altogether false. AXpa/bj is the Hebrew
name -B^n, and KXwraj or KXeocra^ is an abbreviation of
KXtoKarpog. James, the son of Alpheus, has not then the
least title to being one of the cousins-german of Jesus. The
evangelical personnel possessed in reality four Jameses, one
the son of Joseph and brother of Jesus ; another, son of
Clopas ; another, son of Zebedee ; another, son of Alpheus.
The list of the Apostles given by Luke in his Gospel and
in the Acts contains one lovdag laxcajSou, whom it has been
attempted to identify with Jude, brother of the Lord, by
assuming that it was necessary to understand adtXipog between
the two names. Nothing could be more arbitrary. This
Judas was the son of James, otherwise unknown. The same
must also be said of Simon the Zealot, whom people have
tried, without a shadow of reason, to identity with the
Simon that we find classed (Matt. xiii. 55; Mark vi. 3)
among the brothers of Jesus.
To sum up, it does not appear that a single member of
the family of Jesus formed a part of the college of the
Twelve. James himself was not of that number. The only
two brothers of the Lord whose names we are sure of
knowing were James and Jude. James was not married,
but Jude had children and grandchildren; the latter appeared
before Domitian as descendants of David, and were presidents
of churches in Syria.
As for the sons of Clopas, we know three of them, one of
284 APPENDIX.
whom appears to have had children. This family of Clopas,
after the war of Titus, held the highest positions in the
Church of Jerusalem. A member of the Clopas family was
martyred under Trajan. After that, we hear no more of the
descendants of the brothers of the Lord, nor of descendant?
of Clopas.
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